Canada seems to be signaling that it is not serious about getting resources to tidewater when Energy Minister Tim Hodgson called a new West Coast bitumen pipeline “overfocusing on what right now is hypothetical.”
Hodgson said “Canada can build many things,” but whether there is a business case for a new bitumen line is “up for the private sector proponents to decide,” adding Ottawa will help when real proponents bring real things forward.
Adding layers, Alberta floats a one-million-barrel-per-day route to the BC north coast. BC Premier David Eby has called Alberta’s idea “not a real project” because there is no private proponent or funding and warned that reopening the oil-tanker ban on the North Coast would jeopardize “billions” in real investments that depend on coastal First Nations support.
Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, has been in force since 2019 and covers the very waters a northern tidewater line would need for crude exports. Eby has pressed Ottawa to reaffirm the ban, while the federal side has only said it is open to review.
Ottawa’s new Major Projects Office is moving quickly on other assets. The first five files referred were LNG Canada Phase 2 in Kitimat, the Darlington SMR in Ontario, the Contrecœur container terminal for the Port of Montréal, and two mines including McIlvenna Bay from Foran Mining, and a Red Chris expansion run by Newmont. No new oil pipeline made the list.
Prime Minister Mark Carney did say in July it was “highly, highly likely” that a new oil pipeline proposal would emerge as a project of national interest, though he stressed it must be brought by the private sector.
Major Projects Office CEO Dawn Farrell told MPs it would take four to five months to evaluate Alberta’s concept once filed. Alberta has budgeted $14 million for technical work and says a submission would come no later than May 2026.
Hodgson says the federal government will work “constructively” with any real proponent in the spring. But as of July, Hodgson said Ottawa had received no private-sector proposal for a Pacific crude line.
After Ontario aired an anti-tariff ad using Ronald Reagan audio, President Donald Trump terminated trade talks with Canada and said he would not meet Prime Minister Carney “for a while,” complicating efforts to diversify markets.
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