The government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will  buy a controversial oil pipeline opposed by environmentalists and the province of British Columbia to ensure it gets built.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline would carry oil from Alberta's tar sands, across the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies, and to an oil terminal outside the city of Vancouver, BC on the Pacific Coast.  It's designed to carry as much as 890,000 barrels of oil per day. 

The Federal Government sees it as an economic necessity that will allow the country to diversify and increase oil exports to Asia, where it could command a higher price.  Right now, 99 percent of its exports go to refiners in the US at a price below the international average because of limits on pipelines and refinery capacity.

"For too long we have relied on one trading partner for our oil and gas exports," Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said.

The Trudeau government wants to buy the pipeline, because opposition pressure prompted the Texas-based developer stopped spending money on it.

The pipeline was instantly unpopular with the British Columbia provincial government, environmentalists, and First Nations indigenous groups.  Protests against the pipeline has included roadblocks and people chaining themselves to construction equipment.

"If it means standing up for the land against bulldozers or the military, we have to do that," Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs spokeswoman Chief Judy Wilson said.