Canada fast-tracks proposed Pacific oil pipeline approval

Canada will accelerate approval of a proposed crude oil pipeline to the country’s west coast, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said, as his government seeks to reduce the economy’s dependence on the United States. Carney said Ottawa would designate the Pacific Link pipeline a project of national interest. That status would allow the proposal to proceed through a single federal regulatory review, which the government aims to complete by September 1, 2027.

The project was announced in July and is intended to expand Canada’s access to overseas energy markets. Carney said the pipeline formed part of a broader effort to double non-US exports over the next decade. Ottawa estimates that the proposed one-million-barrel-a-day pipeline could create 140,000 jobs, add more than C$20 billion a year to gross domestic product and generate C$100 billion in government revenue by 2060.

Canada currently sends more than 90 per cent of its crude exports to the United States through pipelines. The Trans Mountain system, the country’s existing east-west export route, has a capacity of 890,000 barrels a day and is already operating at capacity after its expansion was completed in 2024. The pipeline would be built by government-owned Trans Mountain Corp in cooperation with Pembina Pipeline Corp.

Alberta estimates construction could cost between C$35.2 billion and C$43.7 billion. The federal and Alberta governments would hold majority ownership, while Indigenous communities would be offered at least a 10 per cent stake. Filling the system could require new oil-sands expansion, although the source material says no company has undertaken such an expansion in more than a decade.

Earlier Canadian pipeline projects faced environmental and Indigenous opposition, delays and cost overruns. Carney said consultations with Indigenous groups would be extensive.