British Columbia has agreed to engage in permitting and routing discussions for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast, ending months of resistance from Premier David Eby after Ottawa and Alberta struck a revenue-sharing arrangement that includes annual royalty payments and an environmental liability fund.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made the announcement Thursday evening in Calgary, where they formally submitted a proposed route to the federal Major Projects Office.
Running from Bruderheim, northeast of Edmonton, to the Roberts Bank terminal in Delta, B.C., the pipeline would travel largely within the existing Trans Mountain corridor. Alberta put forward two routing options, including an “original corridor,” where about 92 per cent of the path sits within 100 metres of existing infrastructure, and an “optimized corridor,” where that figure drops to 82 per cent. Staying close to the Trans Mountain footprint, the province argues, limits new land disturbance and reduces the regulatory burden.
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The proposed line would move more than one million barrels of oil per day. Smith said that throughput could push oilsands output to double its current level, reaching eight million barrels daily within a decade and a half, delivering what she described as “hundreds of billions of dollars in government revenue” for social programs, NATO commitments, and Indigenous economic participation.
Pembina Pipeline is entering the project as a commercial partner alongside the federally owned Trans Mountain Corporation. Under the arrangement, Pembina would hold a 10 per cent economic interest once construction gets underway, with an option to add another 10 per cent after the pipeline becomes operational.
Pembina was explicit that it retains full discretion over its final investment decision and will not put its own capital at risk beforehand. The structure also includes contractual protections covering cost overruns and returns.
B.C.’s agreement to participate carries a set of conditions. The federal government committed to early and meaningful consultation with Indigenous groups. As part of what B.C. secured, the province will receive a share of economic benefits tied to efficiency improvements on the existing Trans Mountain line, whose throughput is slated to rise from 890,000 barrels per day to approximately 1.19 million barrels daily, achieved through drag-reducing agents and mainline upgrades. Enhanced coastal spill response, backed by new federal investment, is also part of the deal.
Progress on the Pathways Carbon Capture and Sequestration project is written into the deal as a condition of B.C.’s participation, reflecting unresolved tension over who absorbs the multi-billion-dollar cost of that infrastructure. Ottawa’s tanker ban along B.C.’s northern coast also stays in place, leaving the southern Trans Mountain corridor as the only available path to tidewater for Alberta crude.
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