Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2023. (Screenshot from ParlVu)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the Liberal government’s oil tanker ban, which led to the cancellation of a pipeline that would have transported Alberta oil to British Columbia for international markets, has put Canada in a “weakened and dependent” position.
Poilievre’s remarks came shortly after the United States announced on Jan. 3 that it had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States will run Venezuela until a peaceful transition of power is completed, adding that it will be heavily involved in the nation’s oil industry.
On the same day, Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar weighed in after journalist Brian Lilley posted on social media that the United States would use more Venezuelan oil instead of Canadian oil, warning Canada “can kiss capital investments in our industry goodbye.” Reposting the comment on X, Majumdar said Prime Minister Mark Carney should have spent 2025 “securing investment and building actual energy infrastructure to the Pacific.”
Poilievre’s post on X later that afternoon referred to the Liberal cabinet’s 2016 order-in-council that dismissed the Northern Gateway Pipelines Project, saying the decision has hurt Canada’s economic independence.
“Everyday it becomes more and more clear that Mark Carney’s testifying against the Northern Gateway Pipeline and the Liberal government’s cancellation of it was a generational blunder for Canada’s economic independence,” Poilievre said.
“Now, we are in a weakened and dependent position.”
In 2016, Ottawa effectively cancelled the Northern Gateway project, which would have carried crude oil from Alberta to Kitimat on B.C.’s northwest coast to ship to international markets, by banning the traffic of large oil tankers off northern B.C. waters following criticism from environmental and indigenous groups.
Ottawa-Alberta Pipeline Agreement
Meanwhile, Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Nov. 27, 2025, to pave the way for a new West Coast pipeline, as long as a private proponent comes forward. Carney made the deal with Alberta in an effort to repair strained relations and boost economic activity.
The MOU allows for one or more privately financed pipelines to be built, including a proposed route capable of carrying roughly one million barrels of bitumen to Asia per day, and removes some Trudeau-era energy policies in exchange for additional emission-reduction commitments from Alberta.
The application for the pipeline will be ready to submit to the Major Projects Office on or before July 1, according to the MOU document. The project is tied to the creation of Alberta’s proposed Pathways Alliance carbon capture project, which Smith has pushed for for more than a year.
Carney said the agreement would help create “an energy transition” and is a measure by his government to make the country “stronger, more independent, more resilient, more sustainable.”
The Conservatives have said that instead of selecting certain “nation-building” projects to approve, while maintaining the regulatory regime for the rest of the private sector, the government should remove all barriers like the Impact Assessment Act and “get out of the way” of businesses.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
Olivia Gomm is a news reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.