Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue a new pipeline route to the Pacific Coast, aiming to broaden Canada’s oil export options beyond the United States.
The framework agreement envisions a future adjustment to the existing oil tanker ban off parts of British Columbia’s coast if the pipeline ultimately proceeds.
Carney has set an objective of doubling Canada’s non-U.S. exports over the next decade, arguing that U.S. tariffs are discouraging investment.
Smith said the deal could eventually support more than 1 million barrels of oil per day headed primarily to Asian markets, helping ensure “our province and our country are no longer dependent on just one customer to buy our most valuable resource.”
Carney stressed that as the U.S. reshapes its trade relationships, Canada’s long-standing reliance on its southern neighbor has become a liability.
“Over 95% of all our energy exports went to the States. This tight interdependence – once a strength – is now a weakness,” he said.
According to Carney, a new Pacific pipeline could narrow the price discount Canada faces on oil shipped to U.S. refineries.
He described the memorandum as an opening step rather than a final decision.
“We have created some of the necessary conditions for this to happen but there is a lot more work to do,” he said, adding that no project would move ahead without a private-sector backer.
The agreement calls on the federal government and Alberta to engage with British Columbia, where opposition to oil tanker traffic along the coast remains strong, to find ways to support that province’s economic interests.
In 2016, then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved a contentious pipeline expansion from Alberta’s oil sands to the British Columbia coast, which the federal government ultimately had to purchase and complete amid fierce resistance from environmental groups and Indigenous communities. At the same time, Trudeau rejected the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to northwest British Columbia, which would have crossed the Great Bear Rainforest and carried up to 525,000 barrels a day to Pacific markets such as China.
Northern Alberta holds one of the world’s largest oil deposits, with about 164 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Carney’s announcement followed sharp criticism from British Columbia Premier David Eby, who warned that relaxing the tanker ban would endanger projects already underway and undermine agreements with coastal First Nations.
“The pipeline proposal has no project proponent,” Eby said. “Not only does it have no permits, it doesn’t even have a route.”
He argued the new agreement is a “distraction” from active developments and lacks support from coastal Indigenous communities.
Coastal First Nations President Marilyn Slett echoed that stance.
“We have zero interest in co-ownership or economic benefits of a project that has the potential to destroy our way of life and everything we have built on the coast,” she said.
The agreement links the pipeline concept with a proposed carbon capture initiative, and officials say the two projects are intended to proceed together.
It also commits Ottawa and Alberta to working with companies to identify new emissions-reduction projects by April 1, with implementation targeted to begin in 2027.
