Alberta taxpayers are already spending millions on consultants to smooth the way with Indigenous nations for a new pipeline through British Columbia to the Pacific coast, a proposal that so far has been met with strident opposition.

The biggest spending is $3.4 million with Sedgwick Strategies, a Delta-based company whose president, Byng Giraud, is a veteran of developing major projects and a longtime organizer for provincial and federal conservatives and the BC Liberals.

Most recently Giraud was instrumental to the development of the Woodfibre liquefied natural gas export facility currently under construction near Squamish. He was the company’s first employee in North America and moved from serving as the president of corporate affairs to becoming the country manager on the project.