No pipeline fireworks as Western premiers emerge from annual meeting in Edmonton

There were smiles, handshakes and even a joke or two as Canada's western premiers emerged from their day-long meeting in Edmonton last Thursday.

There has been friction between the leaders of late over British Columbia's opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which would carry more Alberta oil to the West Coast.

Both B.C. Premier John Horgan and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said their positions on the project didn't change following the talks.

Thursday was the first time the two leaders met face to face and the meeting came a week after the federal government approved the controversial project for a second time.

But there were no fireworks at the closing news conference like at last year's meeting, when the pipeline issue led then-Alberta premier Rachel Notley to opt out of signing a final statement for reporters.

Instead, the premiers found common ground on issues such as trade corridors and recognizing professional credentials from province to province.

"We spent a lot of time working together on a statement that finds common ground,'' Kenney said. "It frankly meant that we didn't all get what we would like. Premier Horgan wasn't going to agree to endorse the TMX expansion, for example.

"So, obviously there were some differences.''

Kenney restated that Alberta is prepared to use provincial legislation to limit oil and gas exports to any province he sees as standing in the way of pipelines - a so-called turn-off-the-taps law.

Horgan said his government will push ahead with a legal challenge of that law, as well as a reference to the Supreme Court on whether the federal government had the constitutional jurisdiction to approve the pipeline expansion.

But there were few jabs thrown.

Horgan even made a joke about being the lone New Democrat at the table with Kenney, Saskatchewan's Scott Moe and Manitoba's Brian Pallister, all leaders of conservative governments.

"I wore a blue suit so I could blend in,'' he said as Kenney laughed.

Pallister went into the meeting hoping his western counterparts would unite against Quebec's law banning civil servants from wearing religious symbols, but the item did not make it on the formal agenda of the meeting.

Pallister said he wouldn't give up the fight.

"Manitoba remains very concerned about anything that interferes with our ability to celebrate as a country the diversity that's a reality here,'' he said.

"I'm a farm boy and I don't like erosion. And I certainly am always concerned about the erosion of rights in our country. So I'll continue to have that view and I'll continue to express it.''