Prime Minister Mark Carney came close to telling a Bay Street audience Friday that he will secure a new pipeline for Alberta, offering his strongest endorsement of the idea yet.
During an armchair talk at the Canadian Club Toronto, Carney told the audience not to worry because his government is on top of “the pipeline stuff.”
“Danielle’s on line one,” he said, referring to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. “Don’t worry, it’s going to happen.”
“Well, something’s going to happen, let’s put it that way,” he added, joking about undermining his own bargaining position.
Speaking with reporters in Calgary on Friday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she hopes to make progress with Ottawa on the province’s proposal for a new pipeline to bring oil to the B.C. coast, and on advancing the Pathways Alliance carbon capture and storage project.
“I’m still working with the federal government to see if we can come up with a memorandum of understanding so we can get a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets, as well as the Pathways project, as well as remove some of the bad laws that will allow for that investment to occur,” she said.
The idea of a new oil pipeline has been a political hot potato in Canada for years, if not decades. The federal Liberals under Carney have been careful not to back the idea, even as they push for nation-building projects to spur the economy and reduce Canada’s reliance on exports to the United States.
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Federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson has said any new pipelines to the West Coast will require the support of the B.C. government and affected First Nations. He has mostly refused to comment on the concept, saying it’s hypothetical without a proponent pushing a specific project.
B.C. Premier David Eby has dismissed the idea of a new coastal oil pipeline as “fictional.”
Smith said Friday she hopes to have more to say about a new pipeline next week, before the Grey Cup.
“If we can get rid of some of the bad laws, I have a lot of optimism we’ll be able to build pipelines in virtually any direction,” Smith later added.
But Carney told the Toronto business audience those laws, brought in under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, are not preventing major energy sector projects from going ahead.
He said his government is working on accelerating project approvals through the new Major Projects Office, which is receiving many proposals for large industrial projects.
When asked why he wouldn’t heed calls from fossil fuel industry advocates to eliminate the federal emissions cap or the Impact Assessment Act to encourage more major project proposals, Carney flatly said the laws do not need to change.
“That’s what they say, but they’re wrong,” Carney said.
“We are getting projects coming in. We’re in discussions with the province of Alberta directly on things. But look, we’ve also got a view that’s shared by the government of Alberta in the ‘grand bargain’ — I’m going to quote the premier of Alberta — that the future of oil export is going to be low carbon.
“Twinning additional, in that case, oilsands development with carbon capture makes sense. By the way, it also creates a multi, multi-billion dollar industry for Canada.”
Carney made the comments while promoting his first budget, which proposes to spur capital spending on major industrial projects to kick-start growth and expand Canada’s export capacity.
The prime minister also touted potential growth in liquefied natural gas exports, saying Asian countries are hungry for LNG and that it often ends up replacing coal.
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