Ottawa takes the next step toward a 1,250-km pipeline through Alberta's backyard

A pipeline proposal that's been quietly working its way through Ottawa's bureaucracy since July just moved a rung closer to reality, and the timeline now has a hard date attached.

The federal government is advancing the process to designate the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline — a project that would carry oil from the Bruderheim area northeast of Edmonton to a new marine terminal in southern British Columbia — as being in the "national interest" under the Building Canada Act, according to a notice published in the Canada Gazette on Aug. 1 and reported by The Canadian Press. That designation matters because it lets Ottawa fast-track approvals and bypass certain environmental review requirements that would otherwise apply. The public now has until Sept. 18 to submit comments before a decision is made.

According to the project's own listing with the federal Major Projects Office, the pipeline itself would run roughly 1,250 kilometres, moving up to one million barrels of crude oil a day through 11 pump stations to a new deepwater marine terminal, largely tracing the existing Trans Mountain corridor. The Government of Alberta is the official proponent, though the pipeline would ultimately be owned by a new joint venture between Trans Mountain Corporation, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, and Pembina Pipeline Corporation — with Pembina holding an initial 10 per cent economic interest that could grow to 20 per cent once the line is operating.

Notably, the exact route hasn't been finalized. Ottawa's own materials describe the project as being in the "early stages of development," with the precise corridor still to be worked out alongside Indigenous groups and other stakeholders. The Major Projects Office says a real and meaningful opportunity for Indigenous equity participation is part of the plan, backed jointly by the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation and the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation.

The numbers being floated are large enough to get a province's attention: Ottawa's project page estimates the pipeline could support close to 140,000 jobs at peak construction, split roughly 45,000 in Alberta and 70,000 in B.C. There's a catch tucked into the fine print, though — the whole proposal is explicitly tied to the advancement of the Pathways Project, one of the largest carbon capture and storage undertakings in the world, meaning this pipeline's future is bound to another massive project's progress.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc will lead federal engagement with the Alberta and B.C. governments as consultations continue, per the government notice. Ottawa has said it intends to confirm in the Canada Gazette by Oct. 1 whether the project will formally be listed as being in the national interest.

For a region whose economy still runs largely on oil and gas, a west coast pipeline with this kind of price tag and job count is the sort of story worth watching closely over the next several months — well before a single shovel goes into the ground.