British Columbia won’t be able to stop the Trans Mountain extension from being built, but allowing additional permitting requirements on the already-federally approved pipeline shows the regulatory system for pipelines “has fallen into disarray,” a former oil patch executive says.

Former TransCanada and Talisman Energy CEO Hal Kvisle told BNN in an interview that even though he's confident Kinder Morgan's $7.4-billion pipeline extension will go ahead, despite a pledge by the B.C. Green-NDP alliance to block it, the regulatory process for the project is a “nightmare.”

"That whole system has been allowed to fall into disarray, where different counties and municipalities and provinces can impose additional permitting requirements on federal undertakings," he said. "I think that's really unfortunate and it's become a nightmare over the last 25 years."

Kvisle said long-haul pipelines fall into federal jurisdiction to avoid local government roadblocks, but that this authority has been eroded by a morass of "regulatory proliferation," which is preventing projects from being built.

"There's been an incredible piling on of regulatory activity in addition to the fundamental National Energy Board approval required for a pipeline," he said.

The former CEO’s comments come after  the two parties set to take power in B.C. said they would use "every tool" available to stop the Trans Mountain project.

“There’s an awful lot that can be done in British Columbia to stop the shipping of diluted bitumen in our coastal waters,” the province's Green Party Leader, Andrew Weaver, said.

Kvisle says the real impact from pipeline delays won’t be felt by the pipeline companies, but by producers who lack infrastructure to get their products into market.

“Even though some of these pipeline companies lose a few billion dollars in failed regulatory proceedings like Keystone XL, or possible Kinder Morgan or Northern Gateway, the real losers are the producers in Western Canada,” he said.