Alberta assessing how it can align with Saskatchewan on pipeline policy: Smith

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a news conference in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Alberta is reassessing its pipeline policy after Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced all pipeline permits in his province would be pre-approved moving forward.

In a statement Wednesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she has asked officials to see how the province can align with Saskatchewan.

“It’s time for Team Canada to get serious about our domestic energy security, nation building, and growing our economy,” Smith said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

“Alberta remains one of the most business-friendly jurisdictions in North America and I have repeatedly emphasized Alberta’s willingness to work with other provinces and the federal government to develop new pipeline projects across the country as soon as possible.”

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Moe announced Saskatchewan’s new policy in a social media post on Wednesday, encouraging all provinces and the federal government to do the same.

“All pipeline permits going east, west, or south received in Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved,” Moe said in the post.

The change comes just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump showed renewed interest in building the Keystone XL Pipeline in a Truth Social post.

Smith shared the President’s post on X on Tuesday, saying the project should never have been cancelled.

“Lower fuel costs for American families is a big win,” she said.

“Let’s also scrap these inflationary tariff ideas and focus on getting shovels in the ground right away!”

Moe also shared Trump’s post on social media, adding, “The path to continental energy dominance is to increase non-tariff North American trade. This includes the construction of new pipelines like Keystone XL.”

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for South Bow Corp., the oil pipeline operator spun off from TC Energy Corp. last fall and now the owner of the existing Keystone system, said the company has “moved on” from the XL expansion project.

The Keystone XL project -- a 1,900-kilometre pipeline that would have run from Hardisty, Alta., to the major U.S. crude storage hub at Cushing, Okla., and then on to Gulf Coast refineries -- was first proposed during the Obama administration, which rejected it on environmental grounds.

It was then revived under the first Trump administration, before former president Joe Biden killed it again by revoking the pipeline’s permit on his first day in the White House in 2021.

With files from The Canadian Press