Reversing Trudeau-Era Energy Policies, Canada’s Carney Woos Alberta With Oil Pipeline Deal

TORONTO — In a major pivot from its own Trudeau-era climate policies, Canada’s Liberal Party government has signed off on a deal with the oil-rich province of Alberta to build a new pipeline through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, aiming to boost oil exports to Asia by as much as one million barrels a day.While angering environmentalists, the decision is seen as a major step in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s drive to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on America and to tamp down separatist sentiment in Alberta, where frustration over federal environmental policies has helped feed a grassroots effort to force a referendum on independence from Canada.The pipeline is intended to allow for expanded production in Alberta’s sprawling tar sands oil fields and diversify the country’s customer base beyond the refineries in Texas, Louisiana, and the American Midwest that now receive roughly five million barrels per day from the province. As part of the deal, sealed in a memorandum of understanding by Mr. Carney and the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, at Calgary on Friday, Canada will also slow the implementation of a federally mandated carbon tax and other environmental measures that have irked the influential tar sands industry.In his public remarks, Mr. Carney stressed the improved level of cooperation between Ottawa and Alberta, sometimes described as the “Texas of the North” because of its oil- and cattle-based economy, along with a fondness for Stetson hats.“Today is also about building trust in a Canada that works, a Canada rooted in cooperative federalism, where we build together pragmatically and ambitiously to achieve our shared ambitions,” he said Friday, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Ms. Smith, whose United Conservative Party argues for “sovereignty within Canada” rather than outright independence, contrasted Mr. Carney’s approach with that of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, who had rankled the province with policies aimed at making Canada carbon-neutral by 2050.“I think this will go a long way towards demonstrating that the new prime minister approaches the issue of cooperative federalism in a very different way than the previous prime minister,” she said. “Now [it] may not be the deciding factor for everyone, but it’s going to, I believe, convince a few more people that Canada is worth fighting for and it’s worth working towards.”Climate activists objected to what they called “unreasonable compromises” in the agreement, especially on the delays in implementing the carbon tax and other clean energy regulations. “The final Canada-Alberta MOU implementation agreement will put Canada’s target of net zero by 2050 well out of reach,” said the president of the Canadian Climate Institute, Rick Smith, in a written statement.The planned pipeline also faces resistance from the left-leaning government and indigenous tribes in the Pacific province of British Columbia, where the pipeline will terminate. Many fear environmental damage from increased tanker traffic along the coast.Under the terms of the memorandum, Alberta is to submit an application for the pipeline to Ottawa by July 1, and the Carney government has committed to approve the application by October following consultation with indigenous groups and the British Columbia government. Construction could start within a year after that, and the pipeline could be in service by 2033 or 2034.The future of Alberta’s independence referendum, meanwhile, remains uncertain after a court on May 13 threw out a petition with more than 300,000 names on the grounds that organizers had failed to meet an obligation to consult with affected indigenous groups in the province before gathering names.Ms. Smith denounced the ruling as “anti-democratic” and vowed to appeal, even though she opposes outright independence. She said her government would review its options, which include reviving the referendum through an act of the legislature.

Reversing Trudeau-Era Energy Policies, Canada’s Carney Woos Alberta With Oil Pipeline Deal

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