Trudeau firm on pipeline

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing firm in his support for the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion across British Columbia, just hours before he attends a town hall meeting on Vancouver Island.

Speaking this morning on CBC radio in Victoria, Trudeau says support for the pipeline is a key link in his government's three-part plan to safely export Canadian resources, protect the B.C. coastline and meet carbon emission targets.

He says without the pipeline between the Edmonton area and the port in Burnaby, the other parts of the plan will collapse.

B.C. has released proposals that would ban increased exports of diluted bitumen until shippers demonstrate they can clean up any spill.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has called that an unconstitutional attempt to get around federal approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Trudeau is in Nanaimo for another in his series of town hall meetings and members of the Georgia Strait Alliance say they hope to get into the event to question him on the pipeline and about protection for endangered orcas.