OTTAWA — The premiers of Alberta and Ontario both said at a meeting Monday that they are cautiously optimistic that Prime Minister Mark Carney will successfully get a new oil pipeline built in Canada. But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the planning should not be limited to just one.
Meeting with her Ontario counterpart in Calgary, Smith said Alberta crude oil should have access to a “growing share” of pipelines. “I’m of the view there’s probably room for more than one pipeline, probably several.”
Smith has been pushing for a pipeline that would bring crude oil from Alberta to the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C. So far, B.C. Premier David Eby said that is unlikely to happen.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he agrees on the need for several pipelines to create more wealth, saying he has been “promoting building pipelines west, east, north and south.”
“We need to unleash the opportunities, no matter if it’s the great oil here in Alberta or the critical minerals of the energy that we have in Ontario, that’s what we need to do. The door is open. We need to go through that door and tell the world Canada is open for business.”
In an interview with the Calgary Herald on the weekend,
Carney said it is “highly likely” a pipeline will make its way on his government’s list of nation-building projects for accelerated approval
under the swiftly passed Bill C-5’s
Building Canada Act. However, he said he couldn’t guarantee it because such a proposal needs to come from the private sector.
“I would think, given the scale of the economic opportunity, the resources we have, the expertise we have, that it is highly, highly likely that we will have an oil pipeline that is a proposal for one of these projects of national interest,” he said.
“The private sector is going to drive it . . . We’ve got legislation, but we’ve also got the people in place at the federal level who can get things done,” he added.
The new act, which received royal assent in late June, allows cabinet to approve major projects deemed in the national interest by bypassing federal laws, such as environmental rules, if needed.
The race is now on for proponents to get their projects on the list of approved plans.
Carney and his Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson have
strongly suggested their teams are working behind the scenes
to make a new pipeline to the West Coast a reality.
Hodgson said last week there has been “lots of discussions with various folks” around that project and that it is “something that’s being worked on actively.”
“When there’s a transaction, we’ll let everybody know, but you should assume that everyone is focused on trying to figure out how to make that happen,” he said.
Smith said she would like to see a pipeline on Carney’s list of approved projects by fall.
Asked if Carney is all talk and no action on getting new pipelines built, she said “there’ll be a moment when the rubber hits the road.”
“You can only talk the talk for so long before you start putting some real action around it.”
Ford, who was in Calgary to sign memorandums of understanding to support new energy corridors and increase interprovincial trade between his province and Alberta said he is giving Carney “the benefit of the doubt” on project development and it’s “so far, so good.”
“Well, let’s give Prime Minister Carney an opportunity. And there’s going to be a time that either we’re fully in or we aren’t,” he said.
Ford went on to say how Carney’s Liberal government is much better than under previous prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“I’ll tell you one thing: Prime Minister Carney is no Justin Trudeau. He’s a business mind. He’s run massive, multi-billion dollar businesses, and he’s bringing the business approach to the federal government that hasn’t had that approach in the last 10 years,” he said.
“I have all the confidence that he’s going to listen to the premiers and straighten out the federal government once and for all, and get rid of the red tape and regulations, and let’s see what happens there.”
Ford said the provinces are trying to make Canada’s economy more resilient in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“The days of relying on the United States 100 per cent, they’re done, they’re gone,” he said.
Smith, who has been running into Carney and federal ministers during the Calgary Stampede, said she is glad that they are hearing direct feedback about how frustrated the energy industry has been for the past decade under Trudeau’s government.
Smith said she also had the opportunity to speak directly with Carney,
specifically about his Stampede pancake-flipping technique
which she said “needs a little work.”
National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com
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