Prime Minister Mark Carney said any new crude pipeline to tidewater will proceed only if “billions” are committed to a major carbon capture system, calling the Pathways project a “necessary condition to unlock those pipelines,” while unveiling five preferred projects—none of them a crude pipeline—under June’s new fast-track law.
Under Bill C-5 (Building Canada Act), cabinet can adjust how existing rules apply to projects deemed in the “national interest,” a power the government says will compress multi-year approvals. That authority arrives even as the oil-tanker moratorium off BC’s north coast and a sectoral emissions cap remain in effect, key policy constraints Carney acknowledged when tying any crude export line to decarbonization spend.
Ottawa’s first five files sent to the Major Projects Office are: LNG Canada Phase 2 (Kitimat, BC), the Darlington small-modular reactor project (Ontario), the Contrecœur container terminal (Port of Montréal), Foran’s McIlvenna Bay copper-zinc project (Sask.), and the Red Chris copper-gold mine expansion (northwest BC). The government framed the slate as accelerating nation-building investment under a “one project, one review” model.
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Carney also supported expanding copper output by placing McIlvenna Bay and Red Chris on the initial list. After the announcement, Foran Mining rose as much as 9.8% intraday.
On pipelines, Carney reiterated that while the new law allows regulatory carve-outs, the federal focus is first on an Alberta-based carbon capture, utilization and storage build that would cut oilsands emissions intensity, echoing the “grand bargain” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith referenced in June. The crude pipeline omission in the first tranche underscores that linkage.
Alberta’s premier called her late Wednesday meeting with Carney “exceptionally productive” and told Albertans she is “more optimistic than ever that the concerns of Albertans are FINALLY BEING HEARD,” while cautioning that “the work is not yet complete.”
Nearly all Alberta crude still flows south to the US and only one line currently feeds tankers for Asian markets, one reason Canadian heavy oil trades at a discount to WTI, a vulnerability sharpened by new US tariffs.
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One Response
This is bad policy. Carbon capture may or may not be economically feasible. Why spend billions of taxpayer dollars pursuing a political goal? While I appreciate much of what Prime Minister CArney has proposed to do, this seems to me to be a mistake.