Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada and Alberta would meet on Friday to advance a potential pipeline capable of carrying at least one million barrels of Alberta crude a day to new markets, signalling federal support for expanded oil-export infrastructure.
The announcement came a day after Carney unveiled a long-awaited clean-electricity strategy, which aims to double Canada’s electricity generation by 2050 at a construction cost the government put at more than C$1 trillion.
A new export pipeline would be intended to reduce Canada’s heavy reliance on the United States as a buyer of its crude, a vulnerability underlined by trade frictions with Washington over the past year.
The pipeline push sits uneasily alongside Carney’s climate agenda. The prime minister has said his government will "update" its plan to sharply cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, without committing to the existing target, leaving its fate uncertain.
Alberta has long pressed Ottawa for additional pipeline capacity, arguing that constrained takeaway routes depress the price its producers receive. Premier Danielle Smith’s government has made new export infrastructure a central demand.
Carney framed the twin announcements as an attempt to balance economic growth with the energy transition, though environmental groups criticised the pipeline plan as inconsistent with Canada’s climate commitments.