Miles of unused pipe, prepared for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, sit in a lot outside Gascoyne, North Dakota, on Oct. 14, 2014. Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have welcomed reports of political interest on both sides of the border in reviving a pipeline project linking Alberta’s oil sands to the United States.
“We are glad to hear President Trump and his administration express renewed interest in the Keystone XL pipeline,” Poilievre said in an Oct. 8 statement.
“Prime Minister [Mark] Carney should know that he will have the Official Opposition behind him if he does the right thing and gets this crucial project moving,” he added, noting that the Stephen Harper government had approved the new pipeline in 2010.
The project met a sudden death in 2021, after facing various forms of opposition, when U.S. President Joe Biden revoked its presidential permit on his first day in office.
U.S. President Donald Trump had approved the project as one of his first decrees during his first term in 2017. Early in his second term, Trump called for the company behind the project, TC Energy, to “come back to America, and get it built — NOW!”
“Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!” Trump said in a Truth Social post in February.
TC Energy created the offshoot company South Bow to handle its oil pipeline business last year, and the company said it had “moved on” from Keystone after Trump made his comment.
The Trudeau Liberals had advocated for the project, and it now appears Carney is considering a renewed effort to bring it back.
Several media outlets reported from unidentified sources on Oct. 8 that Carney raised the idea of reviving Keystone XL during his discussions with Trump this week, and that Trump was receptive. Neither administration had immediate public comments on the matter.
There was a signal from the Carney government, however, that energy is considered part of the equation to reach a deal with Trump on tariffs.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was at the White House with Carney, spoke to reporters after the Trump meeting on Oct. 7 to give an overview of what happened during the talks.
“We talked about strengthening the energy partnership with the United States so that work was positive,” LeBlanc said. He added that the two leaders directed their teams to “quickly land deals” to bring “greater certainty” in the sectors of steel, aluminum, and energy.
The Keystone XL project consisted of 1,930 kilometres of pipes to bring crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steel City, Nebraska. It would have been able to handle 830,000 barrels a day destined for refineries further south in Oklahoma and on the Gulf coast.
New Pipeline Talk
Talks in Canada to build new pipelines intensified amid tariffs imposed by Trump, on whether to find new markets or to connect Alberta oil to Eastern Canada. Canada sends most of its production south of the border, and Eastern Canada is reliant on imports from the United States and elsewhere for oil supplies.
This situation did not lead to the Carney government advocating for new pipelines. Such a project did not make the short list of “major projects” deemed to be in the national interest that Carney announced in September.
Carney did, however, open the door to a pipeline project to the West Coast that includes carbon capture, the Pathways Plus project, which has been advocated by Alberta Premier Smith.
Carney identified that project as a strategy that could be “truly transformative” for Canada but which requires “further development.”
Smith has been in a heated dispute with B.C. Premier David Eby over the matter of a new pipeline going through his province in recent days. Smith said last week Alberta was preparing an application to Carney’s Major Projects Office to build a new pipeline through B.C.
Eby said this week the project is “fictional” and that it makes no economic or financial sense. Smith shot back that Eby’s stance on blocking Alberta’s resources export is “un-Canadian and unconstitutional.”
On the potential to revive Keystone XL, Smith said on Oct. 8 that she is “pleased” to see the proposal being “elevated.” She said, however, that her priority remains exporting through B.C. as that would provided the “maximum volume that would go to the maximum number of new markets.”
Poilievre, meanwhile, said bringing back Keystone would be just a “good start” and that Carney should fulfill his pledge to build Canada at speed.
“This cannot be one-and-done for our industry. We also need pipelines going from West to East and to our Western shores to open new markets in Asia, protect our sovereignty and give us more control over our resources,” he said.
Tories have called for a full repeal of legislation they say impedes energy production and export, such as the Impact Assessment Act, the West Coast tanker ban, the industrial carbon tax, and the oil emissions cap.
Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson was asked by reporters last week whether his government would consider lifting the tanker ban to accommodate a future pipeline to the West Coast.
“It’s a hypothetical question right now, because there is no project before us,” he said.
“If Alberta wants to be a proponent, they want to put the money forward to work as a proponent for a pipeline, that’s their right to do so,” he said. “They have said it will take them till the spring of next year before they have done enough work to come to us.”
Reuters contributed to this report.