Pipe(line) dream

Bowman bandwagon

PIPELINE PUSH GETS A REALITY CHECK

Premier DOUG FORD was in Wild Rose Country to do the obligatory Calgary Stampede thing: flipping flapjacks, swapping a Ford Nation belt buckle with Alberta Premier DANIELLE SMITH (complete with a lasso moment), and pumping up pipelines.

But, and it’s a biggie: Experts, critics, and even the feds are poking holes in the new oil pitch.

Dubbed the Northern Shield — a name Smith awkwardly forgot at one point — the pipeline would stretch 3,300 kilometres moving between 500,000 to 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta to Sarnia, Ontario, cutting through Regina and Winnipeg. Saskatchewan Premier SCOTT MOE is on side, but Manitoba’s WAB KINEW needs more convincing, saying he wouldn’t support any project without first consulting First Nations.

Questions abound: There’s no specifics on a price tag or a plan for private-sector participation. Infrastructure Ontario is handling the feasibility study, which is due out by the end of the year and would…