GOLDSTEIN: New pipeline to be financed by a gusher of taxpayer money
· Toronto Sun
Prime Minister Mark Carney has answered the question of what it’s going to take to build a new oil pipeline in Canada – a gusher of about $60 billion of taxpayer money, for starters.
That’s up to $43.7 billion (minimum estimate $35.2 billion) for a pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to southern B.C., 90% funded by federal and Alberta taxpayers, with 10% initially and up to 20% eventually coming from the Pembina Pipeline Corporation.
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But the private sector component is not guaranteed unless certain conditions are met to Pembina’s satisfaction.
That’s a far cry from the memorandum of understanding Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed in November 2025 for:
“Construction of one or more private sector constructed and financed pipelines, with Indigenous Peoples co-ownership … with at least one million barrels a day of low emission Alberta bitumen, with a route that increases export access to Asian markets as a priority.”
The other $17 billion in taxpayer money is not directly connected to the pipeline, but it’s what it will cost the federal government to fund several major infrastructure projects in British Columbia to get Premier David Eby to suspend his opposition to the project. He’s still opposed but now accepts that Ottawa has constitutional authority to approve the proposed inter-provincial pipeline.
The new 1,200-km pipeline will largely follow the path of the existing Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline, eventually ending south of Vancouver at an expanded export terminal in Delta, B.C. for export to Asian markets.
The TMX pipeline was bought by the Justin Trudeau government for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan, which abandoned the project in 2018 because of regulatory delays and political opposition from the B.C. government.
We’re building our strength at home, diversifying our trading partners, and protecting our extraordinary natural heritage. pic.twitter.com/0pxQ6V4zWJ
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) July 3, 2026
The cost to federal taxpayers eventually rose to $34 billion. It began moving diluted bitumen petroleum from the oilsands to B.C.’s west coast in May 2024 and from there to U.S. and Asian markets.
Environment and some Indigenous groups still oppose the new pipeline even though it will now end in southern B.C. as opposed to a more controversial route to B.C.’s north coast, where the federal tanker ban will remain in effect.
It will also be contingent on the completion of the $20-billion Pathways Project to reduce oilsands emissions by 16 million tonnes annually, the costs to be shared by federal and Alberta taxpayers and the Oil Sands Alliance consisting of five major oil companies.
New pipeline to be designated a project of national interest
The very optimistic timeline for the new pipeline, given the history of these projects, is that the federal government will designate it as a project of national interest by Oct. 1 2026, construction will begin by Sept. 1, 2027 and completion and commercial operations will start between 2032 and 2034, contingent on regulatory approval and Indigenous participation.
Carney says all this new federal spending will leverage hundreds of billions of dollars in new domestic and foreign private sector investment, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and help to ensure Canadian energy security, national prosperity and a more diversified economy in the face of U.S. protectionism while promoting national unity.
Critics question why taxpayers have to fund a new pipeline when Canada’s oil and gas sector is predicted to collect an extra $90 billion in windfall profits this year caused primarily by energy supply shocks due to the war in Iran and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Polls show public opinion across the country – including in B.C. and Quebec where opposition to new pipelines has been strongest – has shifted toward Carney’s views, including Carney himself, who prior to entering politics was the UN’s special envoy for climate change, co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and the leading global corporate advocate for higher carbon taxes.
Indeed his new positions have angered both Canada’s anti fossil-fuel lobby, who accuse him of abandoning his previous values, while his previous positions make fossil-fuel proponents suspicious of his motives now.
Finally, while they’ll never get credit it for it from the Liberals or liberal media, Carney’s new policies are a vindication of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Smith.
Both have long argued it was economic madness for Canada during the Trudeau era, given our vast oil and natural gas resources, to create policies designed to keep most of it in the ground, when fossil fuels today supply 86.2% of the world’s energy, despite the growth of renewables.