Opinions on pipeline development to carry oil to the market have been very polarized.

So while the federal government buying the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion may have been a surprise, it's no shock there's been a wide range of reactions.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe tweeted yesterday that he's hopeful the purchase - which does not include future construction costs - works out, but he has questions about how much more taxpayers will have to pay for construction, whether the dynamic in B.C. - where there's been a lot of opposition from the provincial NDP, environmentalists, and First Nations - will change, and what kind of message the purchase will send to private investors.

Cypress Hills - Grasslands Conservative MP David Anderson didn't think it likely that the move will change people's minds in BC, and said it's the federal Liberals' fault they put themselves in a position where they're using taxpayer money on a project that might never be completed.

"It doesn't appear that the British Columbia government's changed their position on this. Within minutes of them announcing the buy out of the thing, I saw on tv that the environmental organizations were pledging to turn up their protest, not to back them down. The reality is they did this supposedly to take the risk out of the project, but they haven't taken any risk out of it because they haven't made an agreement with the people who opposed it. We've got the same situation that we had before, but now we have Canadian taxpayers' money at risk."

Anderson believes the federal government should have done more to ensure that construction of the approved pipeline - which would run between Burnaby, B.C. and Edmonton - went ahead regardless of opposition.

There was a May 31 deadline for Kinder Morgan to receive enough certainty from the federal government that the project would be completed, or it would be scrapped. Now more public dollars are involved, and that's something Anderson doesn't like.

"Kinder Morgan didn't come to this asking for taxpayers' money, and now we've got a company that's sold out, probably taking their money across the border," he said. "Not only do they get $5 billion for their pipeline, but they're not going to be spending the $7 billion or $7.5 billion that they were going to be spending to do the expansion. Instead the Canadian taxpayers are going to be stuck with that risk. We think there are a lot better ways this could be done, and the Liberals got themselves into this trouble, now they're expecting the taxpayers to bail them out."

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan's opposition NDP Leader Ryan Meili is hopeful the federal government's decision to buy the pipeline is a step forward in its development.

"It's a potentially-game-changing move, it really is. And perhaps some of the folks that have been opposed will be more supportive at this point. But certainly it shows that the federal government is very committed. What happens on the BC side I think has yet to be seen."

Meili said the Saskatchewn NDP have seen the project as one that should go forward, but needed federal leadership to get through a "stalement."

"This is a form of federal leadership that was a bit of a surprise, this isn't really what we were sure would happen, but it's a very interesting step forward, and we'll be watching it closely to make sure that it does achieve the intended goal, which is allowing the project to proceed without any unintended consequences, and that's something we want to watch closely - make sure that we haven't seen a situation where this would result in, down the line, greater costs for Saskatchewan and Canadian taxpayers."