Alberta senator Doug Black stopped in Lacombe Friday as part of his provincial tour this week.

Black is the sponsor of Bill S-245, which would declare the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project and work related to it, as “for the general advantage of Canada.”

What that would do, Black says, is nullify local and provincial laws related to the project and ensure that plans to twin the pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C., are not obstructed. That action is necessary because the project is in the national interest, he says.

“I’ve very keen that the Trans Mountain Pipeline be built for the benefit of Albertans and the benefit of Canadians,” Black says.

“It’s not going to get built by itself … this needs to get done because our prosperity is at risk.”

The senator says the legislation he’s proposing has been used 400 times since Confederation but less so over the past few decades.

With the B.C. government having vowed to stop the project, Black says the time for negotiating has passed.

“I think we need to use a bit of muscle to say this is being built to the advantage of Canada and anybody’s who’s going to get in the way of it being built will be acting illegally,” he says.