Sproule

Saskatoon-Nutana MLA Cathy Sproule

The Saskatchewan New Democrats are responding to criticism from the governing Sask Party that they don't support the job creating Keystone XL Pipeline.

The government passed a motion on Thursday showing support for approving the pipeline that would run from Alberta, through southwest Saskatchewan, and down to the southern United States.

While the NDP voted against the motion, Energy Critic Cathy Sproule says it wasn't because they didn't support the project.

"We didn't have a chance to support it," Sproule said. "We asked three times to be able to speak to the motion, because our concern was the motion itself wasn't worded properly, and that it needed to be amended in order to make sense.

"We were denied an opportunity to speak in the legislature, and we felt that it was not supportive of democracy, and that's why we weren't able to vote in favour of it, because we didn't have an opportunity to present what we thought made sense," Sproule added. "We totally support pipelines in Saskatchewan. We always have."

Sproule added that the jobs created by the pipeline near Shaunavon would be short term, and they would like to see more long term value added to the province from projects like this, as well as more work done on environmental protection.

Shawn Mullin talked with Cathy Sproule about the opposition's stance on the pipeline: