Alberta to unveil West Coast pipeline proposal on Thursday

OTTAWA — Alberta’s proposal for building a new million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the West Coast will be unveiled on Thursday, a spokesman for the premier confirmed.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in May that the province’s United Conservative Party government would submit its application for a new pipeline to the federal Major Projects Office “ by July 1.”

“We will have a major announcement on July 2 to share new details about the Government of Alberta’s submission to the Major Projects Office for a new one-million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast,” spokesman Sam Blackett wrote in a statement on Monday, citing that July 1 was Canada Day.

Alberta’s push to build a new pipeline to the West Coast has been the centrepiece of a memorandum of understanding Smith and Carney agreed to last fall, as the pair looked to reset the Ottawa-Alberta relationship after years of acrimony over federal energy policies under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Since taking office, Carney has pledged to transform Canada into an “energy superpower,” with Smith advocating that a new pipeline to the West Coast would advance the federal goal of diversifying the country’s export capacity to Asian markets in the face of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. Her province is also facing a push to separate from Canada, with Smith looking at the pipeline deal as a way to demonstrate improved relations with Ottawa.

Two big questions looming over Alberta’s pipeline pitch are whether a private sector proponent will step forward to build it and the exact route a possible new pipeline would take, given the fierce backlash past projects have received from some local First Nations and environmental groups when proposed routes have run through British Columbia’s northwest coast, with nearby waters protected by an oil tanker moratorium.

Smith’s government is expected to hold a telephone townhall on Tuesday about its pipeline proposal with Indigenous communities, with a media notice saying it would be collecting information for further engagement.

Smith has signalled that a northern route would be the most advantageous in terms of port access and proximity to Asian markets.

B.C. Premier David Eby has said he is opposed to lifting the oil tanker ban and has panned Alberta’s pipeline proponent as so far lacking any private sector backer. Under the deal with Alberta, Carney’s government has said it is open to amending parts of the oil tanker ban.

Eby has argued that his province has a list of major projects with real investment backing that the Carney government ought to consider for fast-tracked approvals, with the premier saying his NDP government was negotiating its own memorandum of understanding with the federal government.

Under the deal with Alberta, Carney’s government has committed to working towards designating Smith’s pipeline proposal as a project in the “national interest” by October 2026, with the stated goal of providing it with the conditions necessary to begin construction by September 2027.

A federal official confirmed to reporters last week that designating a project to be in the “national interest” would not require it to have a private sector proponent. That designation would trigger the process that the Carney government ushered in last year to provide it with more upfront approvals in the hope of providing more certainty to industry and investors.

Carney has tied the construction of a possible new oil pipeline to the West Coast to a group of major oilsands companies agreeing to build a massive carbon capture and storage network meant to trap carbon emissions as a way to deal with the emissions from a new pipeline, an endeavour estimated to cost billions of dollars.

National Post

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