Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Monday that she would like to see an oil pipeline built through British Columbia to the West Coast, but if the pipeline is not built, she would consider shipping Alberta’s oil across the border through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to reach Pacific ports.
“Anytime you can get to the West Coast, it opens up markets to get to Asia,” Smith observed to the National Post during a year-end interview.
Alberta has oil to sell and eager customers in Asia. In November, she envisioned shipping a million barrels per day to Asia to make Canada much less dependent on its top oil customer, the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney supported Smith’s vision with a memorandum of understanding for construction of a new pipeline through British Columbia, coupled with exemptions to the current ban on oil tankers off the B.C. coast.
The move triggered a revolt in Carney’s Liberal Party, which does not like oil or the pipelines that carry it. Some also felt the deal between Carney and Smith marginalized British Columbia and its indigenous residents, who did not have seats at the negotiating table, and reinforced the notion that Alberta is a special province of higher stature than the rest of Canada.
Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault, a former environment minister, resigned his cabinet post to protest the agreement. Guilbeault said he was afraid the pipeline could cause environmental damage to the Great Bear Rainforest, or tankers coming to collect the oil might have spills that damage the British Columbia coastline.
The pipeline controversy prompted Nutrien, a potash company based in Saskatchewan, to abandon its plans for a billion-dollar export terminal in British Columbia and move the project across the border to Washington State instead. Angry Canadian critics accused Nutrien of betraying the national interest to seek bigger profits in the United States.
Last week, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party attempted to pass a motion to build a pipeline to the Pacific, but it was defeated by an alliance between the Liberals, the Greens, and the left-wing NDP party.
Poilievre said his motion was an attempt to push Carney to “put up or shut up,” instead of making “excuses” to delay the pipeline he promised Smith he would build. He even taunted Carney by noting that some of the language in his bill was lifted directly from the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Carney and Smith, so it should have been easy for Carney to support it.
Smith told the National Post on Monday that Nutrien could transport its potash to Washington using existing rail infrastructure, but it would be harder to move large quantities of oil that way. She said she was still optimistic about getting a pipeline through B.C., but some infrastructure is already in place in the American Pacific Northwest if the B.C. project does not materialize.
Smith’s interview with the National Post stirred up even more controversy, as critics worried about sending billions of dollars in trade and jobs from British Columbia south of the border to America – and possibly inspiring other Canadian businesses to follow Alberta’s oil to the more welcoming regulatory environment of the United States.
Some of those critics were not angry at Smith, but rather at obstructionist politicians like B.C. Premier David Eby for forcing Alberta to consider shipping its oil through Washington or Oregon.
“Canadian energy could bypass British Columbia entirely because years of B.C. NDP obstruction made it impossible to build here. Jobs lost. Revenue lost. Economic prosperity lost. This is the cost of blocking pipelines and saying no to opportunity,” fumed B.C. Conservative Party leader Trevor Halford.
Smith’s remarks to the National Post also stirred up some excitement in the Alberta independence movement, which saw a pipeline across the southern border as an important step toward building a closer relationship with America – and getting further away from Ottawa, whose governance has been a major impediment to Alberta developing its petroleum wealth.
“The route exists, approvals are realistic, and there’s no B.C. or Ottawa veto. Albertans will finally benefit from the full value of our resources,” said independence advocate Keith Wilson, a lawyer who has worked with the Freedom Convoy protesters.
