Trudeau picks up the pipeline dossier

The Canadian government is banking on its clout being sufficient to remove obstacles to a long-delayed oil export project

Faced with critical export constraints and a rising tide of oil sands crude, Canada's government has chosen an unusual and controversial step. It has decided to take over the troubled TransMountain pipeline to steer it through an increasingly complicated political and regulatory morass of its own making. In May, the cabinet opted to purchase the entire project from Kinder Morgan Canada for C$3.7bn ($2.8bn). With it come obligations to spend another C$8bn to triple capacity to a much-needed 900,000 barrels a day and potentially open new offshore markets in Asia. Overnight, Canadian taxpayers find themselves the proud owners of an ageing 1,150km (932-mile) mainline to the British Columbia coas