First, sa国际传媒 laid down five stringent requirements for any heavy oil pipelines in the province.
Then Premier Christy Clark got into an argument with Alberta over sharing revenues from such lines. Then she staged a mini-walkout from a premiers' meeting.
Then the government announced it has tough questions for the proponent of the northern gateway line.
Is there any doubt sa国际传媒 is growing disengaged with the Northern Gateway proposal?
Not that the sa国际传媒 Liberals ever were engaged. They held off taking a position during the run-up to the review now underway. And they minimized the government's exposure throughout.
But the trend lately has been to firmly dampen down any impression that the government supports the line.
The most recent signal was late last week, when sa国际传媒 filed notice it would be cross-examining the pipeline company. That move highlights yet again the earlier decision to take part in the review as an intervener, rather than as a government participant.
Asking questions is one thing, but answering them is another. And as an intervener, sa国际传媒 has to answer questions only if it submits evidence, which it has no plans to do. If sa国际传媒 was registered as a government participant, officials could have faced questions regardless of what they submitted.
The review panel has become a sideshow since the argument over revenue started. But it is still going to issue the key findings next year on the feasibility of the project.
Environment Minister Terry Lake says sa国际传媒 has some tough questions and its requirements are clear: "If you want to do business in sa国际传媒, you must have world-leading policies and processes governing spill prevention, spill response and liability insurance that reduces government and public exposure to risk."
Those requirements were made clear only late last month when Lake finally unveiled sa国际传媒's stance on the pipeline.
So provincial lawyers plan to grill Enbridge on details of the tankers and tugs they plan to use, and ask questions about the $500 million worth of improvements to the project announced earlier.
They also have questions about safety "in the wake of the spill in Michigan."
sa国际传媒 lawyers want more than eight hours worth of hearing time to go through all the issues in detail.
While the cross-examination will be about the safety details, the grander political stage is taken up with the argument over benefit-sharing.
Based on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attitude Tuesday, there's no sign of any breakthrough on that front.
After a week of conflicting messages from various federal cabinet ministers, he arrived in Vancouver and said the bare minimum. He told reporters in Vancouver that commerce with the Asia Pacific region is a vital economic interest for sa国际传媒 and sa国际传媒
And that it's important to diversify exports through sa国际传媒
But when it comes to doing just that by way of an oil pipeline to the coast, that's where things got vague in a hurry.
"I've been very clear - that decisions on these kinds of projects are made through an independent evaluation conducted by scientists into the economic costs and risks that are associated with the project," said Harper.
"The government obviously wants to see sa国际传媒's export trade continue to grow and diversify, that's important, but projects have to be evaluated on their own merits."
Wanting a pipeline is one thing. Saying it out loud - particularly in sa国际传媒 - is another.
Harper said the federal government "will be making further investments to ensure that we are able to provide surveillance and mitigate any environmental risks that exist."
So his government is prepared to ante up, if necessary, to beef up the safety protocols.
But deciding what's necessary depends on the review panel findings, and on settling the argument over benefits.
Said Harper: "The only way that governments can handle controversial projects of this manner is to ensure that things are evaluated on an independent basis scientifically, and not simply on political criteria.
"The government does not pick and choose particular projects."
He acknowledged he's in the middle of the argument with the premiers - he's talked to some of them. But he wouldn't say how it's going.
"Let me say this, though, I'm not going to get into an argument or a discussion about how we divide hypothetical revenues," Harper said.
In other words, it's not going well.
