OTTAWA — The head of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board says the federal government’s financial adviser has raised the possibility of getting involved in the Trans Mountain pipeline project but there’s been no political pressure applied.
CPPIB chief executive Mark Machin says that the Toronto-based fund manager and its peers will likely take a look at the stalled Trans Mountain project because there are a limited number of investment opportunities of its magnitude.
Machin’s comments to the House of Commons finance committee come less than two weeks after the government announced it would buy the project for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan to ensure the pipeline will be completed.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau has predicted the Trudeau government will have no difficulty selling the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project after uncertainty about its future is resolved.
The federal government’s hand was forced by B.C. Premier John Horgan, who is waging a court battle over the federally regulated pipeline, which would carry diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to a sea port near Vancouver.
Machin told the finance committee that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has had both good and bad experiences with pipelines and will use its usual approach when deciding whether to put money into Trans Mountain.
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