Canada invokes treaty with US in dispute over Line 5 pipeline

Canada has been pushing the US to intervene in a dispute over a contentious oil pipeline project Michigan ordered shut.

Canada has formally invoked an international treaty with the United States over Enbridge Inc’s Line 5 pipeline, escalating a dispute over the contentious project slammed by environmental and Indigenous groups.

Line 5 ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, but the state of Michigan ordered Enbridge to shut it down due to worries a leak could develop in a section running beneath the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes.

Enbridge ignored Michigan’s order and the sides are embroiled in a legal battle, while Ottawa has been pushing its counterparts in the US to intervene.