Alberta Premier Smith open to southern route for potential pipeline to West Coast

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith discusses the future of the pipeline and when consultations will begin.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s open to a southern route — or one that runs along the Trans Mountain Expansion Project — for a potential pipeline that would transport oil from her province to the West Coast.

Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday they’ve reached a deal on an industrial carbon price, a critical piece of their memorandum of understanding. They’ve agreed to push back the date for an effective price of $130 a tonne by a decade, to 2040.

Hashing out the industrial carbon price puts Canada and Alberta one step closer to greenlighting a pipeline to the Pacific, though it still depends on the Pathways carbon capture projects going ahead.

Carney and Smith also announced this week construction on a pipeline will start in September of 2027, though no precise timeline on Pathways was provided. That timeline is still to be negotiated by Smith, Carney, and industry.

The federal and provincial governments, however, have not yet decided on a route for the pipeline, which could be a stumbling block. B.C. Premier David Eby, for example, is opposed to a route that would lead to the northwest coast, because it would require lifting a maritime tanker ban.

Speaking to CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday, Smith said she and the federal government are looking at five potential routes for the pipelines, on which she’ll be briefed over the weekend.

“We’ve been working on the route for some time, and I did share with the prime minister that we would let him know what our top options are,” Smith said.

“There are some that just emerge as being a bit more economic than the other, and then we have also been starting the process of engagement,” Smith added. “Engagement and consultation have different bars, but as soon as we put in the application, that’s when the consultation will begin in earnest.”

When asked specifically whether all possible routes go to the northern part of the West Coast, or whether there is one that goes along the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX), Smith said both are options being considered, and that she’s open to both.

“I’ve been pretty clear that I like the idea of a northern route,” she said. “It gets us to the Asian markets a few days faster.”

“It is less congested and (there is) less to navigate with the islands when you go further north as well,” Smith also said. “But you know, I’m open-minded about what the Roberts Bank proposal might look like. That was the other one that we were looking at.”

The Roberts Bank option would see the pipeline route head south, ending in Delta, B.C., south of Vancouver.

Also asked whether choosing the path of least resistance — with as few potential hurdles as possible — is a factor in the decision making for a potential pipeline route, Smith said it is.

“There’s no question that you can have a project that looks great on paper, and the engineers would say ‘that’s the route,’ but you have to deal with the political realities,” Smith said, adding she believes the pipeline is a “really good value proposition” with “enormous economic benefit.”

“We want to do our work to make sure that everybody feels confident that we’ve addressed their concerns,” the premier also said. “That’s why we started early, but we’ll really ramp it up as soon as the proposal is submitted after July 1.”

A private proponent for a pipeline has yet to come forward. Alberta is currently the proponent for the project and will remain so up until the province submits its application.

You can watch Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.