Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith shake hands in Calgary after finalizing a carbon-pricing agreement.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Alberta officials expect to see first oil move through a new pipeline to the West Coast by 2033 or 2034, after the province and Ottawa signed a long-awaited deal on carbon pricing and emissions reductions in the energy sector.
The agreement was inked on Friday by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. It finalizes the fine print of a memorandum of understanding they signed last year, which tied Ottawa’s support for a potential pipeline to Alberta increasing the carbon price it imposes on oil producers and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon capture and storage, also called CCS.
The two governments have agreed to an effective carbon price of $130 per tonne by 2040 by instituting annual benchmarks for the headline carbon price – or policy price – including $115 by 2030 and $130 by 2035.
Under Friday’s agreement, Alberta will submit an application for a new oil pipeline to the West Coast to Ottawa’s Major Projects Office on or before July 1. The federal government will then look to designate the pipeline as a project of national interest by Oct. 1.
If that designation is successful, Canada will assess the project under the Building Canada Act to determine the conditions required for construction and development of the pipeline.
“Provided that duty to consult obligations with Indigenous Peoples have been met, Canada intends to make best efforts to provide the conditions document by September 1, 2027 to enable commencement of construction of the pipeline,” it says.
Under the agreement, both governments will establish a trilateral discussion with British Columbia on the oil pipeline application, and Ottawa will continue working with B.C. “on other projects of national interest in their jurisdiction.”
More coming