Former Alberta premier wades in to B.C. coast pipeline debate

Alberta is once again pitching a pipeline to B.C.’s coast, and a former Alberta premier is weighing in.

Jason Kenney was at the helm during a similar dispute back when they wanted to build the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) expansion to tidewaters in Burnaby.

B.C.’s answer then was thanks but no thanks, and current B.C. Premier David Eby had a similar answer this week.

“I am being polite: there is no project, there is no bridge to cross, unless the Albertan government and the federal Canadian government are committing billions of taxpayer dollars to build this project,” Eby said.

Kenney says Eby is risking Canada’s national unity, saying the NDP premier’s ideological opposition to pipelines is contrary to the rule of law in Canada. He says this issue poses a bigger threat to Confederation than the Alberta separatist movement.

On Wednesday, current Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced her province’s plan to lead an application to build a pipeline to the West Coast.

Joined by reps from Calgary-based oil and gas company Cenovus Energy, Smith announced that she has assembled an advisory group, including Indigenous partners and three major pipeline companies, which she says will help assess and plan an application to the federal government for an oil pipeline proposal.

She says her government is putting up $14 million for early planning work on the project that it hopes the private sector will eventually take over, with potential Indigenous ownership.

Alberta is to act as the project proponent and aims to file a regulatory application to the new federal Major Projects Office in the spring.

The TMX expansion eventually happened after years of delay and court challenges.

CIBC analysts applaud Alberta efforts to spur new pipeline, but doubt its success

Meanwhile, analysts at CIBC say they’re doubtful Smith’s plan will succeed.

They say in a report that they applaud the effort and are open to the possibility of such a project going ahead, but the political and economic realities may be difficult to overcome.

The CIBC analysts say the advisory committee is credible and shows such a project would be in the national interest, but many hurdles remain.

“It may be a long road ahead to move a pipeline from the development stage to a sanctioned project, even with the newly created Major Projects Office under the Building Canada Act,” the report said.

“Despite campaigning on a promise to render final decisions on projects on a maximum two-year timeline, the timelines were notably absent from the act.”

The analysts note that only one project has been approved since 2019 under existing federal environmental review legislation that many industry players want to see scrapped: the Infrastructure Assessment Act. For the proposal to succeed, a federal oil tanker ban on the northern B.C. coast would need to be removed and emissions cap would need to be modified or eliminated so it doesn’t act as a limit on oilsands production, they wrote.

— With files from Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press.