Trans Mountain and Pembina would ship 1 million barrels a day from Alberta to the coast
Ottawa has taken the first formal step toward fast-tracking a proposed pipeline that would carry about 1m barrels of Alberta crude a day to the West Coast.
The government has set a September 18 deadline for the public to comment on the plan.
As per CBC News, a notice published in the Canada Gazette on August 1 started the process to designate the line a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act, also known as Bill C‑5.
The law requires a 30-day notice period and consultation with the affected province or territory before a project can be added to the Act's Schedule 1.
Once a project earns that status, Ottawa can streamline its federal approvals, including environmental assessments, according to the government's notice.
The Canada Gazette says the roughly 1,250-kilometre pipeline would run from Bruderheim, Alberta, to a deepwater port near Delta, British Columbia, for shipment to global markets.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Pembina Pipeline Corporation would own it through a new jointly owned entity.
Pembina, BNN Bloomberg reported, holds a 10 percent stake in the construction and can buy an additional 10 percent once the line is operating.
The Alberta government, named as the proponent, has already referred the project to Ottawa's major projects office.
According to the notice, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc will work with the Alberta and British Columbia governments while consultations with Indigenous communities continue.
Alberta wants the pipeline built to strengthen the country's energy independence and global competitiveness, the provincial government has said.
In weighing the designation, the government may consider whether a project strengthens "Canada's autonomy, resilience and security," delivers economic benefits, has a high likelihood of success, advances Indigenous interests and contributes to "clean growth" and the country's climate goals, the notice states.
The move drew criticism from environmental groups and opposition politicians. Julia Levin, associate director of national climate at Environmental Defence, faulted the government for launching the process over the long weekend.
Levin said in a statement that Prime Minister Mark Carney "quietly moved forward with his oil pipeline plans" over the weekend, as reported by BNN Bloomberg.
He noted Canadians were then facing wildfires, flooding, and heat waves.
Levin, according to CBC News, accused the government of moving at "breakneck speed" without "due oversight."
New Democratic Party leader Avi Lewis called the project "corporate welfare on a surreal scale," noting it is not financed mainly by the private sector.
"For Canadians across this land, it is a kick in the teeth to call this climate bomb of a project 'in the national interest,'" Lewis said in an emailed statement to BNN Bloomberg.
BNN Bloomberg reported that Parliament passed the Building Canada Act more than a year ago with Conservative support.
The government has since moved three other projects toward national-interest status:
- the Grays Bay road and port project in Nunavut
- the Mackenzie Valley Highway in the Northwest Territories
- the Nuclear Waste Management Organization's deep geological repository in northern Ontario
In May, two federal discussion papers floated further leeway for such projects, including approval before review and exemptions from the "jeopardy test" under the Species at Risk Act, CBC News reported.
