Carney secures deal for western Canada oil pipeline

MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured an investment agreement with British Columbia on Thursday to build a major oil pipeline, overcoming initial opposition from the westernmost province.

The pipeline will link the oil-rich province of Alberta to the Pacific coast, crossing the entirety of British Columbia as a result.

The project aims to give Canada new access to Asian markets and help reduce the country’s economic dependence on the United States.

Carney was set to give a press conference later Thursday with Danielle Smith, the premier of the conservative-leaning province of Alberta, about the project.

British Columbia’s Premier David Eby said the investment agreement, worth several billion Canadian dollars, secured environmental safeguards and would see construction of new LNG facilities and port infrastructure in the province.

“We will not be going to court to fight a pipeline project,” Eby said, adding that residents would be “fairly compensated for the environmental risks” of the project.

British Columbia leadership had, until recently, voiced opposition to the project over concerns on environmental impact and risks to Indigenous communities.

Carney had previously said the pipeline would help Canada realise its goal of becoming an “energy superpower”, dismissing impacts on national climate goals laid out by predecessor Justin Trudeau.

“The changes we have made will mean that our emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government’s plan,” Carney said Tuesday.

“But in my judgement, that plan was not sustainable over the long term,” he added.