{"id":271541,"date":"2025-10-02T09:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271541\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T09:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:37:17","slug":"government-of-alberta-plans-to-propose-a-new-oil-pipeline-to-b-c-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271541\/","title":{"rendered":"Government of Alberta plans to propose a new oil pipeline to B.C. coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Premier\u00a0Danielle\u00a0Smith\u00a0says\u00a0Alberta\u00a0is committing $14 million to a West Coast oil pipeline<\/a> do-over that hinges on First Nations getting on board early and Ottawa reversing a tanker ban that would make such a project unworkable on the northern B.C. coast.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a project\u00a0Smith\u00a0hails as the fulfilment of a higher duty to humanity, while her B.C. counterpart characterizes it as half-baked political gamesmanship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat stands before us right now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock our wealth and resources and become a world-leading energy superpower,\u201d\u00a0Smith\u00a0told a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are billions of people around the world living in energy poverty who demand a higher standard of living. This is not just a question of Alberta\u2019s energy. It is a global, moral imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The province is putting up $14 million to fund the early regulatory work, but\u00a0Smith\u00a0stressed\u00a0Alberta\u00a0taxpayers won\u2019t pay to build the pipeline itself. The hope is that Alberta\u2019s kick-start will instil enough investor confidence for the private sector to eventually take over and potentially for First Nations to take ownership stakes.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Alberta Premier said an advisory advisory group with representatives from Enbridge Inc., South Bow Corp., and Trans Mountain Corp., will work with the government to develop the proposal for a new pipeline.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTMX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby told reporters\u00a0Smith\u00a0doesn\u2019t have a real project.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPremier\u00a0Smith\u00a0continues to advance a project that is entirely taxpayer funded, has no private sector proponent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eby said he\u2019s still willing to work with\u00a0Alberta\u00a0on projects \u201cthat have real private sector backing, that aren\u2019t entirely taxpayer-funded wedge politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal is to be filed to the new federal Major Projects Office, which aims to speed along developments deemed in the national interest. A submission is expected in the spring of next year.<\/p>\n

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Alberta\u00a0plans to develop the project with the backing of an advisory group that includes three major Canadian crude pipeline operators: Enbridge Inc., Trans Mountain Corp. and South Bow Corp. No company has stepped forward to actually build the pipeline. No route has been determined, but\u00a0Smith\u00a0has said a pipeline should go to the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C.<\/p>\n

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Ten years ago, Ottawa imposed a ban on oil tankers along a segment of the northern B.C. coast, spelling the end of Enbridge\u2019s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, B.C., after years of intense environmental and First Nations opposition and court battles.<\/p>\n

Smith\u00a0said Northern Gateway and its potential new iteration share a common goal \u2014 expanding the reach of oilsands crude into lucrative Asian markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat keeps coming back is that this is the project that should have been built. This is the one that should have been built when it was first proposed, when it was Northern Gateway 1.0.,\u201d\u00a0Smith\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:46
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Trans Mountain pipeline is complete, but at what cost?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Heiltsuk Chief Marilyn Slett said there\u2019s no support for the pipeline or oil tankers among Coastal First Nations members.<\/p>\n

\u201cPremier Smith\u2019s continued talk of oil pipelines and tankers, and the risk of a catastrophic oil spill in B.C.\u2019s coastal waters, is not nation-building,\u201d said Slett, president of Coastal First Nations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn fact, it risks the goodwill and support of First Nations for more realistic and economically valuable nation-building projects in B.C. and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta\u00a0Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney said she was calling First Nations leaders in\u00a0Alberta\u00a0and B.C. earlier this week and the feedback was more positive than what it would have been during the Northern Gateway era.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve heard both from industry and Indigenous leaders is that Indigenous voices were not central to the process as Northern Gateway was being discussed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key piece of advice was to pick up the phone, go to the community, meet people where they\u2019re at, and tell them what it is that you hope to do, and really listen to their concerns and do whatever you can to alleviate or mitigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The province provided supportive statements from the chief of the Fort McKay First Nation in the oilsands region of northern\u00a0Alberta\u00a0and the president of the National Coalition of Chiefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue partnership means listening to Indigenous voices, respecting our lands and ensuring our people share in the benefits,\u201d said Fort McKay Chief Raymond Powder.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhile Premier Danielle Smith says the Alberta government has no plans to pay the cost of building a pipeline, her predecessor, Jason Kenney lost $1.3 billion when his government stepped in to build part of the Keystone XL pipeline before it was cancelled by President Joe Biden.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFile photo\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Dale Swampy, president of the chiefs coalition, said oil and gas participation can be a way to drive economic reconciliation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are happy that\u00a0Alberta\u00a0is leading an effort to get another pipeline to the West Coast, and we are especially happy that they have decided to engage with Indigenous nations in B.C. and\u00a0Alberta\u00a0right from the very beginning of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u00a0said the tanker ban, along with other federal measures that have proven to be deal-breakers on energy projects, will have to be addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m anticipating that they will make either a repeal of that legislation or acknowledge that the port that we need to export from needs to have some kind of carve-out,\u201d said\u00a0Smith.<\/p>\n

She said the proposal will be a \u201ctest of whether Canada works as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t build with the collaboration of the federal government and between provinces, if it\u2019s \u2018everybody gets to get their products going to market except\u00a0Alberta,\u2019 then it\u2019s not a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premier\u00a0Danielle\u00a0Smith\u00a0says\u00a0Alberta\u00a0is committing $14 million to a West Coast oil pipeline do-over that hinges on First Nations getting on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":271542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,140949,17751,79,746,50,42750,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-271541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canada-pipelines","10":"tag-danielle-smith","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-oil-pipeline","15":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115303903845853201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}