Would you side with Redford or Clark on the Northern Gateway pipeline?

B.C. Premier Christy Clark, left, speaks as Alberta Premier Alison Redford looks in 2011. Relations have cooled between the two leaders. (Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press)A heated dispute between Alberta's Alison Redford and British Columbia's Christie Clark is dominating attention at the annual premiers meeting in Nova Scotia.

The neighbours can't seem to agree on the future of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which Clark says she will block if the risks greatly outweigh the benefits for her province.

Speaking from the Council of the Federation meeting Wednesday morning, Clark pressed her position that B.C. needs to receive a high level of compensation for risks associated with the $5.5-billion project.

"Alberta's interests in this are pretty obvious. Alberta gets the large bulk of the benefits, takes very little of the risk," said Clark in a previous interview.

"B.C. takes most of the risk and we get very few of the benefits. So I think it's pretty obvious that we have some talking to do here."

Redford has argued that Clark's request for a "fair share" of the benefits is unreasonable, and would mean "pitting" one province against another at a cost to all of Canada.

"We will not share royalties and I see nothing else proposed and would not be prepared to consider anything else at this time," Redford said in Edmonton on Tuesday morning.

The Alberta premier also said the additional safety measures proposed by Enbridge last week should quell any concerns about the environmental risk.

"The fact that pipelines are still by far the safest means by which to transport oil, significantly mitigate the environmental risk and weaken the B.C. government's argument for compensation based on potential risk."

Have you been following the dispute? Are your views more in line with Clark's or Redford's stance? Please elaborate in the comments below.



(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' replies.)