Momentum for new B.C. pipeline builds, even as province downplays viability

A project dismissed by B.C.’s premier and opposed by First Nations is inching closer to becoming a reality.

A new pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast is inching closer to reality.

This week, the federal energy minister said he’s confident it will be built and on Wednesday Alberta met one of several conditions for possible approval.

“We have a series of discussions going on about another million barrel (a day) pipeline going to the West Coast, and we’re heads down working on that, and we’re confident we’re going to get there,” Energy Minister Tim Hodgson told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday, Ottawa announced an agreement-in-principle with Alberta on methane emissions reductions.

That’s one of a number of federal prerequisites that must be met before a new pipeline can be built through British Columbia.

But B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix told CTV News in an interview on Wednesday that he doesn’t believe there’s a business case, a line both he and Premier David Eby have repeated in recent months with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith trying to recruit private sector interest in building a pipeline.

“It’s still governments talking about it,” Dix told CTV News. “There’s no proponent. And there’s no one who will pay for this. Because you pay for pipelines by agreements with people who want to ship oil on those pipelines, and the cost of that would be so prohibitive it makes no economic sense.”

One private company not ruling out participation in a hypothetical pipeline is Enbridge, although its chief executive said Canada’s regulatory situation will need to change.

“I wouldn’t say a hard no,” Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel told Bloomberg on Tuesday. “What I would say is the conditions don’t yet exist for that pipeline to be built.”

Ebel referenced the north coast tanker ban and a series of other regulations that would need to change for a pipeline to make sense, but said he was encouraged by a shift in language from the Canadian government under Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“If my customers get the green light to produce, Enbridge is the largest mover of oil in North America, it’s going to be there,” said Ebel.

Environmental groups are watching this week’s developments with concern.

“They’re frustrating and they’re fascinating,” Wilderness Committee associate director Torrance Coste told CTV News when asked about Hodgson’s comments.

“There has been no easy road to building a large capacity pipeline in Canada in recent memory. The only one that successfully got across the line was the Trans Mountain expansion, which of course only got there because the federal government purchased it, took on the cost, took on the debt.”

Not everything is on track with regard to a new pipeline going ahead.

Two of the four conditions agreed to under the memorandum of understanding between the federal government and Ottawa in connection with pipeline discussions have not been reached, with just days remaining before the April 1 deadline both governments initially agreed to in November.