OTTAWA (NYTIMES) – Canada will move forward with a pipeline project that has set the country’s provinces against one another, opened rifts among its indigenous communities and prompted major protests.

The project – which will expand the Trans Mountain pipeline that links Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia – is a critical component of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s long-standing position that Canada needs to maintain a strong energy industry to support its efforts to combat climate change. His government bought the pipeline from its American owners a year ago to ensure its expansion.

“We are a government that cares deeply about the environment, and we care just as deeply about the economic success of Canadians,” Mr Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa, announcing his Cabinet’s approval of the expansion.

“This isn’t an either-or proposition. It is in Canada’s national interest to protect our environment and invest in tomorrow,” he added, “while making sure people can feed their families today.”

Mr Trudeau said construction on the expansion, which by some estimates will cost CA$9.3 billion (S$9.5 billion), will begin this summer.

With Trans Mountain, Mr Trudeau has found himself trapped in the middle of an issue that has provoked heated rhetoric on both sides, divided Canada’s two westernmost provinces and exposed a rift in the country’s indigenous communities. It is also likely to become a flashpoint in the upcoming national elections, in October.

Some indigenous groups and environmentalists swiftly condemned the decision.

“They’re going to push it through but we will do everything it takes to stop it,” said Mr Will George, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, which claims the land around the pipeline terminal. He is also a leader of Protect the Inlet, a group opposing the project.

The group, which planned to hold a protest in Vancouver on Tuesday night (June 18), will join with others, he said, “to block highways, to block railroads.” A pro-pipeline protest of about 60 people took place Tuesday afternoon in Vancouver.

Mr Trudeau acknowledged the dissent.

“There are people who will not be convinced by the arguments we put forward and we accept that,” he said.

At the same time, Mr Trudeau is unlikely to get credit from the pipeline’s proponents in Alberta.

“He’s really in a tough spot,” said Professor Lori Turnbull, a political science expert at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before the official announcement. “Trudeau can’t claim a victory out of this no matter what he does.”

The government will put profits it earns from the operation of the pipeline, as well its eventual sale, back into alternative energy programmes, Mr Trudeau said, adding that the government is open to selling stakes in the project to indigenous groups.

Alberta’s landlocked oil industry has been repeatedly thwarted in its quest for additional pipelines.

At the news conference, Mr Trudeau noted that after a decade, the previous Conservative government “built exactly zero pipelines to new markets, but they did manage to build one thing: extreme animosity between those who want pipelines, and those who don’t.”

The Keystone XL project that would link Alberta’s oil sands to the Gulf Coast of the United States has faced strong opposition from environmentalists and some landowners, leaving it mired in litigation.

A pipeline to Eastern Canada was abandoned by its proponents, and Mr Trudeau did not approve a new pipeline that would have run through Northern British Columbia after resistance from indigenous groups; its route had also effectively caused its proponents to abandon it.

Squeezed for capacity, the oil industry has increasingly turned to trains to ship its products from the oil sands, a method that is both costly and potentially dangerous because of the risk of derailments. The industry in Alberta also argues that it is forced to sell its product at a discount because of the transportation issues.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers claims that the discount costs the country’s economy CA$80 million a day, although not all economists agree with that estimate.

Mr Trudeau agreed to back an expanded Trans Mountain in exchange for a promise from Ms Rachel Notley, Alberta’s New Democratic Party premier at the time, to introduce carbon taxes.

But Ms Notley’s support of the expansion created a dispute between Alberta and British Columbia, where opponents included environmentalists who want to limit the oil sands, as well as some indigenous communities that have both environmental concerns and territorial claims. Other opponents are worried about increased tanker traffic and a potential marine disaster.

The two provinces clashed and, at one point, Ms Notley banned imports of wine from British Columbia and threatened to cut off oil and gas shipments to the province.

After the Canadian government bought out the US partner in the pipeline project, it was mired in litigation.

Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal found that the government had not sufficiently consulted indigenous communities along the route and ordered a more extensive review of the potential effects on marine life because of increased tanker traffic.

Mr Trudeau said the government will put in place a variety of programmes to address concerns raised in those indigenous consultations, including better protections for salmon fisheries. He also said the decision to proceed does not mean an end to discussions.

Several indigenous groups, however, remain unsatisfied and Mr Trudeau acknowledged that along with environmental groups, they are expected to continue making legal challenges.

But the pipeline is supported by several indigenous communities in British Columbia’s interior and in Alberta.

Not only have their leaders welcomed the prospect of jobs during the construction period, at least two groups of indigenous communities were working on plans to buy some or all of the pipeline from the federal government before Tuesday’s announcement.

Pipes have already been stockpiled at points along the Trans Mountain route. While some local permits still need to be obtained – a process that cannot be used to block the project – it is expected that construction would begin in the fall or perhaps during the summer, if the project is approved.

Influencing the government’s decision, Mr Trudeau said, was the prospect that the expanded pipeline can open up new markets for Canada’s oil, which is now overwhelmingly exported to the US.

But there is no assurance that a bigger terminal for ships and more oil moving through the pipe will actually inspire buyers in Asia, and China in particular, to look more toward Canada for their needs.

Trans Mountain has not announced any major contracts with Asian companies, and of the four tankers that have loaded at Trans Mountain’s terminal this year, only one headed to China.

Mr Andrew Scheer, the leader of the Conservative opposition, said Mr Trudeau’s announcement does not mean the pipeline will actually get underway.

“Show me the pipeline,” Mr Scheer said. “He failed to tell Canadians on what date construction will actually start.”

Mr Trudeau predicted that the question of balancing the environment and the economy will be a major issue when Canadians vote in October.

But Prof Turnbull said handling it will be one of the prime minister’s most delicate campaign tasks.

“There’s been a series of events that are not under the government’s control,” she said. “There’s a sense the government has lost control over this file.”

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