Carney says he will add to his 'living list' of nation-building projects on Thursday

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will announce its next batch of nation-building projects on Thursday in Prince Rupert, B.C. 

The port city is where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is pushing to build a new million-barrel-a-day bitumen pipeline.

The proposal has received pushback from B.C.’s government and coastal First Nations and serves as a potential test for the Ottawa-Alberta relationship under Carney’s government.

Carney announced that Thursday would be the date for the second batch of projects to be named while speaking at a budget-related announcement in New Brunswick, where he teased that some of that province’s desired projects would be included in the upcoming announcement.

He had said that the second list of projects would be announced before Nov. 16, when he revealed his initial list back in September.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Carney said that many of the projects his government was eyeing crossed different provinces, and reiterated how picking which ones would be forwarded onto the new federal Major Projects Office would be a continual process.

“This is not a one-and-done,” he said. “It’s not one round of projects, and then we move forward with those. This is a living list.”

While provinces and territories have been trying to get projects from their jurisdiction onto the federal list, Smith has been one of the most vocal with her request that Carney’s government streamline approvals for the construction of a new oil pipeline from Alberta to B.C.’s northern coast.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, who acts as the Carney government’s point man when it comes to major projects, has said Alberta first needs to submit its proposal and that it would be evaluated using the same criteria as other proposals, which includes advancing Indigenous reconciliation and showing a capacity for clean growth.

Last week, a spokesman in Smith’s office said in a statement that the province was continuing to negotiate with the federal government in the hopes of signing a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), which would address a suite of environmental policies the premier wants changed, which were ushered in under former prime minister Justin Trudeau

Sam Blackett, the premier’s press secretary, said at the time it had hoped to have the MOU “completed by mid-November.”

Speaking to a business crowd in Toronto last week, Carney rejected the calls coming from industry that policies, such as the proposed oil and gas emissions cap, as well as the federal Impact Assessment Act, were standing in the way of proposals coming forward.

“Don’t worry, we’re on the pipeline stuff. Danielle’s (Smith) on line one. Don’t worry, it’s going to happen,” Carney said last Friday. 

Then, he added in a slight shift, “Well, something’s going to happen. Let’s put it that way.”  

How Carney intends to balance his government’s desire to tackle climate change and accelerate clean growth, while at the same time promoting Canada’s conventional energy capacity, remains a central question for his Liberal government.

In announcing the pipeline proposal, Smith’s United Conservative Party government said it had struck a technical working group comprised of several major oil and gas companies.

It has said it plans to submit its proposal to the new federal projects office, the body responsible for reviewing applications and handling approvals, no later than May 2026.

While Smith has put $14 million in Albertans’ tax dollars towards putting the application together, she has said the goal is for a company to eventually take the project on, but has said Carney would need to clear the path by scrapping a suite of environmental laws passed under Trudeau, including the tanker ban off of B.C.’s northern coast.

Dawn Farrell, CEO of the project office, told a parliamentary committee last month that it could take between four to five months to deliver a decision on Alberta’s proposal.

A spokesman for the Privy Council Office, which oversees the project office, said around the same time that the office itself had received some 500 different proposals.

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.