Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a new royalty framework for oil producers is coming this fall to give companies enough confidence in the West Coast pipeline project to actually invest in filling it.
In a speech to the Alberta Industrial Heartland Association last week, Smith said the province is working with Ottawa to “de-risk” the pipeline. “We have to encourage our producers that this is a real and lasting change,” she said.
Alberta filed its application for the pipeline, a joint project with Trans Mountain Corporation and Pembina Pipeline, with the federal Major Projects Office this summer, and is betting on a national-interest designation from Ottawa by October 1.
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Read: Ottawa and Alberta Pick Pipeline Route, B.C. Falls in Line
Ottawa has also carved new oilsands facilities and gas-fired power plants out of C-69 oversight, a step Smith said fulfills part of Alberta’s memorandum of understanding with the federal government. However, she still wants the law repealed outright and is pursuing that case at Alberta’s Court of Appeal.
Smith made similar comments in a separate CTV “Question Period” interview, saying royalties “have worked in the past.”
Energy analysts are taking notice — Heather Exner-Pirot, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, argued the same approach “worked like a charm” during the last oil sands buildout, crediting it for Alberta’s current royalty revenue.
