Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline listed as ‘project of national interest’ by Carney

Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline listed as ‘project of national interest’ by Carney

Published 4:35 pm Thursday, October 1, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney has designated the West Coast Oil Pipeline, now known as Pacific Link, as a “project of national interest,” with a deadline to finalize conditions within a year.

Carney, along with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, made the announcement in Fort McMurray Thursday (Oct. 1). The Pacific Link pipeline is expected to reduce the country’s dependency on the United States by allowing Canada to export an additional one million barrels a day to markets in Asia.

“Canada has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become a global energy superpower. To create hundreds of thousands of good jobs. To transform our economy. To diversify our trade. To become less reliant on a single trade partner,” Carney said.

The federal government and Alberta will share equal ownership of Pacific Link. Indigenous communities will be offered a minimum 10 per cent ownership interest, financed through Canada and Alberta’s Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programs.

“The listing of Pacific Link as a project of national interest demonstrates what can be achieved when governments work together to advance nation-building infrastructure,” Smith said.

A statement says that over the last three months, Carney’s Major Projects Office did “rigorous consultations” on the pipeline proposal to determine if it was in the country’s national interest, including consulting with more than 130 Indigenous communities near or along potential routes in Alberta and British Columbia.

It’s estimated to cost $43.7 billion and is scheduled to be completed by 2032, according to the Government of Alberta.

A proposed route, according to the Government of Alberta’s webpage on the pipeline, shows it starting in Bruderheim, Alta. and terminating at Roberts Bank in Delta, B.C.

A news release from the Prime Minister’s Office says the pipeline will follow a southern route, which protects British Columbia’s north coast and avoids highly sensitive ecosystems, including the Great Bear Sea.

The Major Projects Office over the next year will lead the federal review process and consultations on the conditions for the project, with a deadline of Sept. 1, 2027. That includes community consultations, route mapping, ecological surveys, cost estimates, procurement and workforce planning.

The pipeline project is expected to create 140,000 jobs, with half of those in B.C.

B.C. party leaders react to pipeline news, announce proposed plans

B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson welcomed the news Thursday morning during a news conference related to the announcement. He said that if B.C. Conservatives form government, he will immediately ask for a trilateral working group between B.C., Alberta and Ottawa to ensure all concerns are properly addressed.

“We will sit together at the same table, and we will make sure that every issue is addressed, so that this project is built safely and responsibly. Protecting our coast and building our economy are not opposites. We can and we absolutely must do both,” he said.

Doerkson said a Conservative government would treat energy as an “urgent mission.” He added the party’s B.C. Energy Superpower Plan, which was announced earlier in the week, would get energy to market, double natural gas production by 2032 and triple it by 2035.

Centre B.C. Leader Elenore Sturko committed to $60 million to increase investment in skilled trades training. She said it’s amazing the Pacific Link pipeline is expected to create 70,000, but B.C. needs to make sure that it has the training and the workers to take advantage of those opportunities.

Asked where the $60 million would come from, Sturko said “obviously there’s some juggling within a budget that any government has to do,” but expenditures that are value-added would be a priority for Centre B.C.

“We think that putting $60 million into education to increase the number of skilled trade professionals we have in the province is an investment that, yes, is costing $60 million,” she said.

“But the dividends that will pay off not only in making sure that we can stand up this pipeline between Alberta and our coastline, but also will pay off in the future in terms of our ability to have a strong workforce to get these projects in British Columbia done.

The B.C. Greens, however, pushed back on the pipeline plan. Leader Emily Lowan said the pipeline makes B.C.’s coast “more vulnerable to (U.S. President Donald) Trump, not less.”

“The pipeline’s oil tankers will travel through American waters close to B.C.’s coast, requiring cooperation with Trump’s government,” she said.

Lowan said the proposed plan of one million barrels of oil being exported daily would be “the biggest oil tankers ever to dock in B.C., and they put the coast and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it at risk.”

NDP Leader David Eby, who has previously pushed back on the project as it wasn’t “shovel-ready,” acknowledged Thursday that it was a priority project for Alberta and Carney.

“For our part, we entered into an agreement with the federal government, $20 billion of investment, a generational investment in infrastructure for B.C. projects for British Columbians.”

In July, Eby and Carney signed a $20-billion agreement to support initiatives including the George Massey Tunnel replacement project and the Roberts Bank port terminal. That terminal is proposed as the terminus for the new pipeline.

READ MORE: B.C., feds announce $3B for George Massey Tunnel replacement

READ MORE: Eby agrees to enter into ‘negotiations’ with Carney as pipeline talk heats up

“We’ve got an important role to play, in this, pipeline process to protect the interests of British Columbians. but we also recognize that, our projects, our priorities, need the same level of attention from the federal government. That’s why we fought so hard for this deal,” he said.

READ MORE: As new oil pipeline effort takes major steps forward, B.C. scrambles to capitalize