Carney-Smith Pipeline Plan Is Slammed in BC
Eby said the project has ‘no proponent, no route, no money, no First Nations support.’
Andrew MacLeod and Amanda Follett Hosgood 27 Nov 2025The Tyee
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s legislative bureau chief in Victoria. Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter.
Our journalism is supported by readers like you. Click here to support The Tyee.
David Eby stands at a microphone in a dark suit with supporters in the background.
Premier David Eby set out the provincial government’s objections to the proposed pipeline outside the legislature today. Image from video of Eby reaction.
While the federal and Alberta governments have agreed on conditional approval for a bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s northwest coast, B.C. Premier David Eby said it doesn’t deal with the reasons he opposes the project.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERS
CONTEST: Win a Limited Edition Book Box from Read Local BCCONTEST: Win a Limited Edition Book Box from Read Local BC
Three lucky Tyee readers will receive a curated holiday literary treat of their choice.
“The bottom line for us is that we need to make sure that this project doesn’t become an energy vampire,” Eby said.
The proposed pipeline has “no proponent, no route, no money, no First Nations support,” he said.
But it will be a distraction that draws limited federal, provincial and Indigenous resources away from more advanced projects such as the second phase of LNG Canada’s facility in Kitimat that will employ people and bring in much needed revenue, Eby said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith released the memorandum of understanding together this morning in Calgary.
As reports circulated in recent weeks that a deal between Ottawa and Alberta was close, Eby and other B.C. officials had complained about being left out of discussions that directly affected the province.
The agreement includes various commitments Alberta had sought, including the federal government scrapping its plan to cap oil and gas emissions, alongside renewed commitments by Alberta on carbon pricing and to pursue carbon capture.
It also commits Canada and Alberta to working together on a new private sector pipeline through British Columbia that would be co-owned with Indigenous people. It sets a deadline of July 1 for an application to the federal Major Projects Office for the proposed pipeline.
Billionaires Don’t Control Us
Get The Tyee’s free daily newsletter in your inbox.
Journalism for readers, not profits.
Email
Your email
SUBSCRIBE
The pipeline would carry at least a million barrels a day of “low emission Alberta bitumen” and be on top of expanding capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline by as much as 400,000 barrels a day. In both cases the goal is to get more oil to Asian markets.
Alberta will “collaborate with B.C. to ensure British Columbians share substantial economic and financial benefits of the proposed pipeline,” the agreement says. It promises to include the B.C. government in trilateral discussions with Alberta and the federal government, as well as to consult with First Nations in B.C. and Alberta.
If necessary, the agreement says, Canada will make “an appropriate adjustment to the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act,” which bans tanker traffic in an area of B.C.’s northwest coast.
It also calls for the “construction of large transmission interties with British Columbia and Saskatchewan to strengthen the ability of the western power markets to supply low carbon power to oil, LNG, critical minerals, agricultural, data centres and [carbon capture, utilization and storage] industries in support of their sustainability goals.”
Speaking in Calgary, Carney stressed the need for Indigenous participation and said a new pipeline would bring substantial benefits for people in B.C.
Smith said the agreement is a first step and acknowledged there is more work to be done to build support for a proposed pipeline across northern B.C.
“I hope we can make pipelines boring again because it’s just a way to get our product to people who need it,” she said.
When she spoke with Eby on Wednesday he was supportive of part of the plan, Smith said, including the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline and the export of liquefied natural gas.
A few hours later, Steven Guilbeault, the former environment minister who came to federal politics from environmental activism, resigned as minister of Canadian identity and culture in Carney’s cabinet. Guilbeault remains a Liberal MP.
In Victoria Eby’s response was muted, though he reiterated his government’s reasons for opposing the proposed pipeline.
The pipeline has neither a proponent nor a route, he said. “The third thing it doesn’t have is something the prime minister said he believed was core… that First Nations agree and support projects before they will go forward through the Major Projects Office. This project does not have the support of Coastal First Nations.”
Eby ruled out taking legal action against the proposal, saying B.C. had gone that route with the previous Trans Mountain expansion and lost in court.
John Rustad, a mid-60s light-skinned man with grey hair, is being scrummed by reporters.
Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad says a pipeline to the northwest coast would benefit Canada and BC. Photo for The Tyee by Andrew MacLeod.
Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad said Carney is right to recognize the need to move Canadian oil to international markets. “It is the right thing to do for Canada; it’s the right thing to do for all of our people, including British Columbia.”
He accused Eby of acting against the national interest and taking a position that results in Alberta oil getting sold at a discount to President Donald Trump’s United States. “It just goes to show that the prime minister is on Team Canada, Alberta is on Team Canada, Saskatchewan is on Team Canada, and quite frankly David Eby is on Team Trump.”
Rob Botterell, the MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and the BC Green Party’s house leader, said the pipeline proposal is “nation dividing” despite claims that it will be nation building. “You have the Haisla and First Nations who are very clear in their opposition to any sort of oil pipeline going through this area. Just that stands fundamentally in the way.”
It’s clear the project can’t move ahead without First Nations support, said Botterell. “I don’t know how many times we have to go through this, and apparently the Alberta premier is planning to go through it again, to figure out you’ve got to respect First Nations’ rights, title and interest.”
Rob Botterell, a 60-ish man in a suit, gestures as he speaks to reporters.
Green MLA Rob Botterell said the pipeline proposal ignores First Nations’ objections and risks a major oil spill on BC’s coast. Photo for The Tyee by Andrew MacLeod.
The waters off the northwest coast are among the most dangerous in the world and a bitumen spill would be very damaging, he said. “Holy smokes, here we go again in dialing back to 1950s’ type of project,” he added. “There’s a need to focus on the future economy, not the past economy. This is a huge carbon bomb if it ever happens.”
The reaction from environmental groups and First Nations was swift.
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs released a statement “loudly objecting” to the memorandum of understanding between Canada and Alberta.
“This MOU is nothing less than a high risk and deeply irresponsible agreement that sacrifices Indigenous peoples, coastal communities, and the environment for political convenience,” it quoted Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the UBCIC president, as saying.
“By explicitly endorsing a new bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s coast and promising to rewrite the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, the federal government is resurrecting one of the most deeply flawed and divisive ideas in Canadian energy politics,” he said, adding that First Nations and British Columbians have been clear there should be no crude oil tankers in the Great Bear Sea.
“We will not stand by while the Carney government and Alberta attempt to bulldoze our rights and disregard the catastrophic risks of a spill in the corporate profit interests of the global fossil fuel industry,” said Phillip. “No bilateral deal can extinguish our inherent title and rights, and no federal legislation can erase the Crown’s obligation to obtain free, prior, and informed consent. The answer is still no and always will be.”
image atom
The Oil Tanker Ban That Dims Alberta’s Pipeline Hopes
READ MORE
Coastal First Nations, a coalition of nations that includes the Gitga’at, Gitxaała, Haida, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Metlakatla, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv First Nations, declared in a statement this morning that a north coast oil pipeline was “never going to happen.”
“Coastal First Nations, along with the province of B.C., will never allow our coast to be put at risk of a catastrophic oil spill,” president Marilyn Slett, who is also Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said in the statement. “We have made repeated calls to the federal government to uphold Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, as it is foundational to the vibrant and growing conservation economy we have built on the North Coast.”
SkeenaWild, a Terrace-based salmon conservation organization, issued a statement calling today’s agreement “nation-dividing.”
“As defenders of wild salmon, we stand in solidarity with Coastal First Nations and northwest B.C. residents in strong opposition to Alberta’s proposal to bring oil tankers to the North Coast,” SkeenaWild executive director Julia Hill said. “Our home region has a long history of standing up against the risks of oil spills and we don’t intend to back down.”
The David Suzuki Foundation described the deal as a “fossil fuel fantasy” that would deal a devastating blow to the climate.
Sierra Club Canada said there is “no economic case” for a new pipeline given and called the proposed project a “pipeline to nowhere.”
image atom
As Smith Pushes New Pipeline Plan, Eby Says No Way
READ MORE
Its provincial counterpart, Sierra Club BC, said the announcement was an attempt to “spin a narrative” despite the lack of route, proponent or First Nations support for the project. “The federal government’s closed-door negotiations with the Premier of Alberta do not serve the people of B.C., First Nations or Canada,” associate director Shelley Luce said in a statement.
In another statement, lawyers with West Coast Environmental Law expressed “outrage” over the agreement, calling it “a slap in the face to B.C., Coastal First Nations and all Canadians who care about making meaningful progress on the climate crisis.”
A pipeline would create “an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic spill that would irreparably harm the marine environment and the coastal economies that depend on it,” staff lawyer Anna Johnston said.
Haisla Chief Maureen Nyce and Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth spoke with Smith on Wednesday and said they made it clear they opposed the proposed pipeline.
Speaking to CBC’s Daybreak North on Thursday morning, former Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach, a New Democrat, described a “strong social consensus” against oil tankers in the northwest and said the federal government’s approach is “disappointing” and “deeply troubling.”