PRIME Minister Mark Carney on Thursday announced that the Government of Canada is officially listing the new West Coast Oil Pipeline, now known as Pacific Link, as a project of national interest.
Canada and Alberta will share equal ownership of Pacific Link. Indigenous communities will be offered a minimum of 10% ownership interest, financed through Canada and Alberta’s Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programs. Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a private sector investor and is offering its expertise to project development, which is being led by the Trans Mountain Corporation – the company that just built the largest oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast.
The pipeline will follow a southern route which protects British Columbia’s North Coast and avoids highly sensitive ecosystems, including the Great Bear Sea.
Over the next year, the Major Projects Office (MPO), supported by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), will lead the federal review process and consultations with all stakeholders on the conditions for this project – including the ownership, benefits, respect for Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and local hiring and oversight – with Indigenous Peoples involved from the start. The MPO will work to finalise those conditions by September 1, 2027, clearing the way to get shovels in the ground.
This means that as the project proponents work over the next year to develop a final concept – from community consultations to route mapping, ecological surveys, cost estimates, procurement, and workforce planning – they will do so with confidence that the federal government supports this project. This will transform the way Canada builds major infrastructure by giving investors and builders the certainty they need to drive projects forward.
Pacific Link will reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States by allowing Canada to export an additional one million barrels a day to growing markets in Asia. It will create 140,000 jobs across the country and generate over $20 billion in GDP per year, and $100 billion in government revenue by 2060 – revenue that will help build the infrastructure and homes Albertans, British Columbians, and all Canadians need, and protect the social programs they rely on every day, from health care and dental care to child care.
Carney said that this pipeline is one part of the Government of Canada’s broader mission to transform our economy – to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports over the next decade, create tens of thousands of good jobs, attract billions in new investment, and unlock our full potential as a global energy superpower.
“Pacific Link is a transformative project, but its full potential will only be unlocked by the initiatives the Government of Canada is leading across the country. We are working to expand the container terminal at Roberts Bank to export crude from Pacific Link. We are advancing new measures to protect our oceans as maritime traffic grows. And we are working with the Government of Alberta to advance the Pathways Project, one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects, to keep Albertan oil competitive for the long term,” he added.
“Canada has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become a global energy superpower. To create hundreds of thousands of good jobs. To transform our economy. To diversify our trade. To become less reliant on a single trade partner. To achieve greater strategic autonomy, so we can continue to live our lives as we choose. Pacific Link is critical to this mission. To seize this opportunity, we are building together – boldly, sustainably, and in true partnership with Indigenous Peoples. In a more dangerous, divided world, Canada is working,” said Carney.
“Today marks a significant victory for Alberta’s and Canada’s energy future. The listing of Pacific Link as a project of national interest demonstrates what can be achieved when governments work together to advance nation-building infrastructure. Today marks an important step toward expanding market access, strengthening our economy, and reinforcing Alberta’s position as a reliable global energy supplier,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Lorne Doerkson, Leader of the Conservative Party of BC, said: “The world needs Canadian energy, and British Columbia needs an economic boost. For that reason, I’m delighted that Prime Minister Carney has committed to building the Pacific Link Pipeline. At a time of economic crisis, helping Canada get our products to new markets to diversify trade is essential for Team Canada.”
He added: “This nation-building project will lead to billions of dollars of investment, thousands of jobs, and revenues that build schools and hospitals. While wars in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine destabilize global energy supplies, British Columbia is in a unique position to support our allies in Europe and Asia, while also becoming energy self-sufficient.”
BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan said: “This pipeline makes B.C.’s coast more vulnerable to Trump, not less. The pipeline’s oil tankers will travel through American waters close to B.C.’s coast, requiring cooperation with the Trump’s government. Shockingly, we’ve heard the Major Projects Office has downplayed this issue, referring to the longstanding trade relationship with the United States. Trump, already proven to be an unstable negotiator, could deny access to the United States’ waters from Canadian tankers.”
She added: “The pipeline would bring a supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil through the Salish Sea roughly every other day. These would be the biggest oil tankers ever to dock in B.C., and they put the coast and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it at risk. And Premier Eby is going to stand by and let it happen. Premier Eby had a choice. He could stand with British Columbians and First Nations to stand up to this project. Instead he’s already promised not to fight it, putting our economy, our coast, and all the communities that depend on them at risk.”
