Trudeau's pipeline project increases cost estimate by $3.1 billion
BNN Bloomberg
The expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline will cost about $3.1 billion more than the Canadian government-owned company running the project projected in May, another financial setback for a project beset by spiralling expenses and years of delays.
Costs for the expansion — which involves twinning a pipeline stretching from Edmonton to Vancouver — will be 10 per cent more than the most recent estimate of $30.9 billion, the company said in a filing with the Canada Energy Regulator on Monday.
That brings the total cost to about $34 billion, more than six times the original estimate of $5.4 billion in 2013.
The latest cost increase — this time due to construction challenges that are delaying the new line’s startup into the second quarter — marks another setback for a project that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expended significant political capital on.
