CALGARY — Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have announced a preferred route and interested parties for a new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast.
Speaking to reporters in Calgary on Thursday evening, Carney and Smith said Alberta has formally been submitted a pipeline stretching from Bruderheim, Alta., to the southwest coast of British Columbia to the major projects office.
“This is transformational wealth, an opportunity neither Canada nor Alberta can afford to leave unrealized,” Smith said.
The pipeline will follow the existing Trans Mountain pipeline corridor to a deep-water port terminal, delivering more than one million barrels a day to tankers and then to Asian markets.
Carney said that route makes the most sense given the line already exists and serves as the “gateway to the world’s fastest growing markets.”
“This is more than just an accord. It’s also an approach that gives certainty to our businesses to build,” he said.
Carney and Smith say using that existing route will significantly reduce regulatory and logistical barriers while minimizing land disturbances.
Smith said the Alberta government is partnering with federally owned Trans Mountain Corporation and Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline.
The announcement comes months after Smith inked an agreement with Carney last fall that pledged to pave the way for a bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.
After that deal, B.C. Premier David Eby voiced his displeasure with the idea, but Thursday’s agreement seems to have smoothed some of that over.
“British Columbia acknowledges Canada’s agreement with Alberta on a new trans-provincial pipeline, which is dependent on construction of the Pathways Carbon Capture and Sequestration project and the duty to consult First Nations,” Carney’s office wrote in an online statement.
“Although B.C. does not seek this project, it recognizes its constitutional obligations and commits to acting in good faith to engage in the necessary routing and permitting discussions, within its jurisdiction, provided the following reciprocal commitments are met.”
Some of the terms of the agreement include Ottawa engaging in “early, consistent and meaningful consultation” with Indigenous groups and Ottawa and Alberta agreeing on “an economic and revenue framework” for B.C.
Ottawa will, however, maintain its ban on oil tankers along the northern coast of B.C.
The revenue framework for the agreement will mean that B.C. will be given an annual royalty payment by the pipeline’s operator and there will be an environmental liability and emergency response fund established.
That environmental protection plan will also include more federal investments for “a world leading coastal spill response regime.”
In return, B.C. will need to help optimize the efficiency of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, Carney’s office said.
It said the capacity of that line will increase from 890,000 barrels per day to 1,190,000 barrels per day through “drag-reducing agents and mainline optimization.”
Ottawa will assist with B.C.’s capital costs and B.C. residents will also be entitled to “a fair share” of the economic benefits of the Trans Mountain optimization project.
The pipeline deal is tied to progress on a major carbon capture network by the province’s biggest oil producers, who have said they shouldn’t have to bear the multi-billion dollar cost alone.
Alberta is preparing to hold a referendum this fall on separating from Canada and Smith has said the deal with Ottawa shows Canada can work, but those pushing for the province to quit Confederation say it cannot fix long-standing grievances.
This is a breaking news story. More details to come
— With files from the Canadian Press
