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- Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have agreed to the broad terms of a deal that would support a new oil pipeline to Canada’s west coast.
- The federal and provincial leaders are set to announce a milestone deal granting special exemptions and “political support” to a new pipeline.
- British Columbia Premier David Eby has expressed vehement opposition to a new pipeline, and cites Indigenous leaders from the region who are also against the idea.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have agreed to the broad terms of a deal that would support a new oil pipeline to Canada’s west coast, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.
Currently Canada has rules which Smith and industry observers say deter investors from committing to a new conduit to ferry Alberta’s oil to the coast of British Columbia, and then to Asian markets. The most obvious legal block is a ban on tankers carrying oil off the northern British Columbia coast.
The federal and provincial leaders are set to announce a milestone deal granting special exemptions and “political support” to a new pipeline at a press conference in Calgary, Alberta, on Thursday, the report said, citing anonymous sources. Carve-outs would be contingent on commitments to stricter carbon pricing and a “multi-billion-dollar investment” in carbon capture from a group of oil sands companies called the Pathways Alliance, the story added.
Such a deal would mark a breakthrough in the tense relationship between the Ottawa-based-federal government, which strengthened environmental protections under previous Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the conservative oil-rich province.
A new oil pipeline is totemic for some Albertans who say the federal government holds back their province’s economic potential. The idea has gained wider support as Canada attempts to diversify its exports away from the US, after President Donald Trump’s tariffs and remarks about making Canada a US state. Currently, most all of Canada’s oil — among the country’s largest exports — is sent south. But adding export capacity runs up against the country’s ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“We hope to have more to share in the coming days,” a spokesperson for Premier Smith’s office said by phone, declining to elaborate on specifics. The Prime Minister’s office declined to comment.
British Columbia Premier David Eby has expressed vehement opposition to a new pipeline, and cites Indigenous leaders from the region who are also against the idea. He’s said forcing through a pipeline could jeopardize Indigenous support for other major projects in BC like liquefied natural gas facilities.
However, Eby does not have a legal veto power. BC was unsuccessful when mounted court challenges to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which was completed last year and can carry 890,000 barrels of oil per day to the Vancouver area.
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