Overview
- Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson told the Global Energy Show that Ottawa is 'open for business' and will use the Major Projects Office to fast-track a one‑million‑barrel‑a‑day West Coast pipeline application.
- Federal support for a new pipeline is explicitly conditional on the Pathways carbon‑capture and storage project, which would collect CO2 from oilsands sites and pipe it to an underground hub near Cold Lake.
- Oilsands producers led by Cenovus warn Pathways would cost tens of billions of dollars and say the agreed industrial carbon price that rises to $130 per tonne by 2040 makes a new pipeline unfinanceable for private investors.
- British Columbia officials have raised route and feasibility objections and argue existing expansions of Trans Mountain and Enbridge Mainline are more viable because they already have private proponents.
- Alberta plans to apply to the Major Projects Office by July 1 and is seeking a federal national‑interest decision by Oct. 1, a timeline that could shape investment decisions, emissions outcomes and interprovincial politics.