While Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has not discussed buying the Trans Mountain pipeline project with the people of her province, she remains adamant that she will do what it takes to get it completed.

A day after saying Alberta was prepared to buy Kinder Morgan Canada’s proposed project outright if it were a necessary step to see it completed, Notley reiterated her commitment to BNN that British Columbia would not stop the flow of bitumen from her province to the Pacific.

“We are prepared at the end of the day to stare down any uncertainty that might be part of a plan emanating from British Columbia,” Notley told BNN’s Amanda Lang in an extended one-on-one interview on Wednesday.

“We haven’t specifically put the question to Albertans yet, but we are getting feedback and what we do know is, it’s just an unprecedented level of support for this pipeline in Alberta,” she added.

“People understand the critical role that it plays in helping our energy industry recover and remain sustainable over many years and we are a province that has come through arguably the biggest recession in about two or three generations – not come through, are working our way through – and people very much get what happens if we don’t do energy well.”

Alberta has been trading shots with B.C. over Trans Mountain since an NDP-Green Party coalition took control of the provincial government from former Premier Christy Clark last July. In addition to protests and injunctions, the two provinces have taken action against one another including a proposed B.C. ban on Albertan bitumen transports and a reciprocal Alberta plan to boycott B.C. wine.

The National Energy Board recommended approval of the pipeline in May 2016 and allowed Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass bylaws in Burnaby, B.C. in December, removing a key municipal opponent.

However, Kinder Morgan suspended non-essential spending on the project last weekend, prompting Notley to step in on Alberta’s behalf.

She told BNN that getting the extension built is a necessary signal to send to companies and investors looking to pump capital into the Canadian economy.

“This goes beyond Alberta and B.C… It goes beyond the energy sector,” Notley said. “It goes to the overall ability of our country to attract capital and to be able to understand what the rules of the game are and to understand that the rules of the game will last throughout the game.”

Andrew Weaver – whose Green Party supports B.C.’s NDP government – told BNN on Wednesday that Alberta’s response to the province’s legal challenges are ‘panicked.’

“Frankly, in my own view, if the province of Alberta and the federal government are actually so sure of their case, they would have joined British Columbia in doing this,” Weaver told BNN.

“Instead, we have this panicked response that one could interpret as a fear that they in fact don’t have the jurisdiction federally.”

Notley, in turn, acknowledged B.C.’s environmental concerns and the importance of protecting the Pacific coastline, but suggested that John Horgan’s government focus its attention on less regulated industries than bitumen.

“If you’re really worried about marine safety, you might want to look at the other 95 per cent of traffic that doesn’t have the kinds of protections in place as the traffic that carries bitumen, or the other kids of things that pose a greater risk to marine life than the type of tankers that would be in play,” she said.

“It doesn’t mean that there can’t be a lot more research done to make bitumen easier to recover and that we can’t put higher standards in place. All of that everyone’s in favour of doing, including everyone in Alberta. But to say that to stop the pipeline is the way to save the coast? That’s an illogical argument that’s not supported by the evidence.”