With one U.S. dollar selling for C$1.40 on the day of the announcement, Alberta’s gift to the pipeliner formerly known as TransCanada is worth $7.42 billion in Canadian funds, in the same week the province announced layoffs for thousands of teaching assistants, school secretaries, and janitors whose schools were closed by the coronavirus pandemic. Fossil industry newsletter Rigzone styled Kenney’s unparalleled generosity as “an approximately US$8 billion worth of financial support from the Province of Alberta”.TC Energy CEO Russ Girling said the pipeline “could not have advanced” without the support of both Kenney and Donald Trump.“Never has there been a more critical moment to support health, workers, and communities,” said Hannah McKinnon, energy transitions and futures director at Oil Change International. “Instead, the Alberta government is diverting limited and desperately needed public money to Big Oil in the latest misplaced attempt to revive the Keystone XL pipeline and prop up a sector that has no role in a more resilient, safer climate future.”