NP View: Mark Carney can't help but slow walk new pipeline - National Post
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith listens to Prime Minister Mark Carney speak during an announcement that the Pacific Link pipeline has been listed as a project of national interest, in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by Itoro Umanah/Fort McMurray Today/PostmediaArticle contentThis week’s announcement by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that a new pipeline to the West Coast, now called Pacific Link, has been designated as a national interest project is good news for Canadians and the energy industry that powers their economy.
But any celebration must be tempered by the fact that despite clear and growing demand for Alberta oil, Canada has become such an unattractive place to invest that a pipeline can only be built with the full backing of the federal government.
True to form, Carney stood in front of a crowd of oil workers in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Thursday and said many of the right things. “Oil demand will continue to be significant for decades to come,” he admitted. “The question is: who will emerge as the world’s trusted suppliers?”
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His answer: “It must be Canada” — a country he referred to as a burgeoning “global energy superpower.” But is this really how an energy superpower would act?
Thursday also marked the one-year anniversary of Smith’s announcement that she was seeking a new pipeline. That was followed by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the federal and provincial governments on Nov. 27, 2025. On March 6, they announced an “agreement-in-principle to accelerate the construction of major projects in Alberta,” including pipelines.
That was followed by an “Implementation Agreement” on the MOU, which provided further details about what both parties would need to do to see the project through. And on July 2, the pipeline was referred to the Major Projects Office (MPO).
That’s at least five joint announcements in less than a year on the same pipeline, and that’s before a single environmental review has been conducted. If Canadians think that’s moving relatively fast, it’s only because the bar has been set so low and they’ve been conditioned to believe that development happens at a snail’s pace.
Faced with an Iranian-blockaded Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates announced the construction of a new pipeline in May that it expects to be operational by next year — basically the amount of time it took us to decide whether a pipeline is actually something a would-be energy superpower might need.
