Alberta to detail ‘million-barrel-per-day’ pipeline to West Coast Thursday

Tim Hodgson, federal minister of energy and natural resources, said Monday that negotiations between Ottawa and Alberta toward a pipeline deal were 'going well.'

The Alberta government says it will be announcing plans for its proposed pipeline to the West Coast on Thursday.

It’s a change from the province’s previous plan to give details on Tuesday, according to information available on a publicly viewable website.

“We will have a major announcement on July 2 to share new details about the Government of Alberta’s submission to the Major Projects Office for a new one-million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast,” Sam Blackett, press secretary to Premier Danielle Smith, said in an email to Global News.

Smith and her government previously said they planned to present a final pipeline proposal to Ottawa on July 1. Blackett noted that July 1 was a holiday in his email to Global News.

Tim Hodgson, federal minister of energy and natural resources, said Monday that negotiations between Ottawa and Alberta toward a pipeline deal were “going well.”

Asked Monday if Alberta’s adoption of the Pathways carbon storage project was necessary to secure a deal, he said the pipeline and carbon capture initiative were “mutually dependent on one another.”

Earlier this month, documents first reported on by CBC News showed a number of options for the pipeline, with the majority ending in British Columbia.

Heather Exner-Pirot, with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, told Global News it appeared all the routes were going farther north than the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Exner-Pirot, who is also a special advisor on energy to the Business Council of Canada, said the routes appear to have been selected for political advantage to go through areas more supportive of oil and gas, rather than economics.

Any pipeline that goes through B.C. is likely to face opposition from Premier David Eby and would require the lifting of the federal ban on northern oil tankers, something the B.C. government and several First Nations oppose.

A week after the documents were reported, B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix expressed frustration about communications involving the pipeline.

He said it was “pretty late in the process” for the B.C. government to learn of the proposals but also rejected the notion that the province was “caught off guard,” adding that any pipeline would face “significant fundamental challenges.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to arrive in Alberta on Wednesday evening.

He told reporters in Kuujjuaq, Que., on Tuesday that he and Smith have been in “close contact” and that Alberta’s efforts to submit a proposal around Canada Day are “tracking well.”

But the fate of the proposal rests largely with the CEOs of the five biggest oilsands companies, whose production would be needed to fill the new pipeline and who are partners in the Pathways project, said Dennis McConaghy, a retired pipeline executive and author.

Those companies would be hard pressed to sign on as shippers on a new oilsands pipeline so long as they’re subject to higher climate costs in the form of the industrial carbon tax and required to spend tens of billions of dollars on Pathways, he said.

“The private sector can finance this if it is confident that they will be allowed to go forward on these expansions with rational climate policy,” McConaghy said.

“Producers are not going to climb on without, I think at a minimum, a significant about-face by Mark Carney, which I don’t think will happen — at least not in the short run.”

The pipeline application comes as Albertans prepare to vote on 10 referendum questions in October, including one on whether to remain in Canada or hold another referendum on separation at a later date.

“My guess is those CEOs will be very reluctant to make long-term commitments until the referendum affirms the status quo,” McConaghy said. And if the pipeline talks break down with Ottawa, it will only serve to fan the separatist sentiment.

“This becomes a very clearcut example of, ‘Does Ottawa work for Alberta?'”

The Alberta government is aiming for the pipeline being designated a project of national interest by October and getting shovels in the ground as early as September 2027.

— with files from Global News’ Amy Judd and The Canadian Press.

This story was originally published by Global News on June 30, 2026. CityAM Canada is republishing it for our Canadian readers.