Welcome to Canada’s energy-first future

It was supposed to be all about an oil pipeline, but the memorandum of understanding that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed this week looks a lot more like a major shift in energy policy.

For Alberta and its oil patch, a potential bitumen line that would ship one million barrels a day to the West Coast is the obvious centrepiece. But look at all the other items in the hopper: halts to clean electricity and oil and gas emissions cap regulations, transmission and power grid upgrades, nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and carbon capture. This goes well beyond a bid to ship more crude to Asia.