Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet are meeting in Alberta as they continue to face pressure about what to do about falling oil prices, long a staple of the Canadian economy.
On Sunday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley met privately with Trudeau and later spoke to about half the cabinet urging full support for a pipeline to get crude from Alberta’s oil sands to tidewater.
Notley wants federal support for the Energy East pipeline that would carry bitumen to Canada’s East Coast.
She received no promises as the government awaits a report from the National Energy Board on the safety of pipeline projects.
Trudeau also faces pressure from other pipeline proponents, including Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, to advocate for the project rather than play peacemaker between supporters and opponents that include many environmentalists and aboriginal groups.
Alberta lost 19,600 jobs in 2015, the most of any year since 1982 when the province was in the midst of a deep recession.
Trudeau and his cabinet are holding a policy retreat at a mountain resort in the Alberta town of Kananaskis. It is set to end Tuesday.
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