Alberta and Ottawa each take 45 percent of a line built to move one million barrels a day
Pacific Link became the first project listed under the Building Canada Act on Thursday, placing a proposed crude oil pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Delta, British Columbia, on an accelerated federal approval track.
The line would carry up to one million barrels a day for export, against 890,000 barrels a day on the expanded Trans Mountain system, which Reuters reported is already running at capacity.
Alberta estimates the cost at between $35.2bn and $43.7bn, according to CBC News.
The Alberta government and the federally owned Trans Mountain Corporation would each hold 45 percent, CBC News reported, with Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp. taking 10 percent through construction and an option on a further 10 percent once the line is operating.
The Prime Minister's Office said Indigenous communities will be offered a minimum of 10 percent ownership interest, financed through Canada and Alberta's Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Fort McMurray, Alberta, that "90 percent of Alberta's oil goes to the US," CTV News reported.
He said Pacific Link will reduce that dependence.
The Major Projects Office, supported by the Canada Energy Regulator, will lead the federal review and consultations on ownership, benefits, respect for Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and local hiring and oversight, with conditions to be finalized by September 1, 2027.
Regulatory review begins once the proponent files a comprehensive project information document, expected early in 2027, a government official told reporters on a not-for-attribution basis in a technical briefing reported by CTV News.
CBC News reported a target of having the pipeline running by 2032-33.
Ottawa says the project would create 140,000 jobs, generate more than $20bn in GDP a year and $100bn in government revenue by 2060.
Citing a Royal Bank of Canada estimate, the official at the CTV News briefing put incremental export revenues at approximately $20bn a year at a Western Canadian Select price of $60 a barrel, alongside $70bn to $80bn in construction investment.
Capital raised by domestic oil and gas producers rose 28 percent this year to $3.1bn from $2.4bn a year earlier, the Financial Post reported.
Tom Pavic, president of Sayer Energy Advisors, told the same outlet that fast-tracking Pacific Link is a tail wind for the project.
He said it will lead to "more investor interest."
In the report, Mark Parsons, chief economist at ATB Financial, said Canadian oil producers have prioritized shareholder returns over new growth for the past decade.
He said new pipeline capacity lets oilsands producers invest in expansions and new greenfield projects.
Companies weighing projects four years out could sanction them in 2028, Curtis White, a vice president at Calgary-based International Petroleum Corp., said in comments to the Financial Post, adding that his company's greenfield project could reach 80,000 barrels a day by 2035 rather than 2040.
Investors are waiting to see whether Canada can fast-track approval and construction by 2032-33, a senior official speaking on background told CBC News, citing how fraught the Trans Mountain approval process was and how long that line took to build.
CTV News reported that Merle Alexander said many of the First Nations he represents are not opposed to a new pipeline but have concerns about the consultation process and the 10 percent ownership stake.
He said it is not "an empowering situation to feel the fix is in."
CBC News reported that a government explanatory note says the pipeline "does not directly contribute to Canada's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets."
The note says emissions intensity will be addressed in part through the Pathways carbon capture and storage project, which Carney said would absorb as much as 16 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
The government anticipates there "probably" will be legal challenges ahead, the lead official briefing reporters said, according to CTV News.
