The Federal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said that Ottawa and the provinces should discuss the possibility of an oil pipeline in eastern Canada to improve energy security and diversify trade.
Wilkinson said on Thursday that the pricing threats from American president Donald Trump had revealed “vulnerabilities” in the Canadian economy, including in the energy sector.
“The world has changed a lot in the aftermath of what we have seen from what was our friend, the United States,” he told journalists in Montreal. “I think it asks us to think about the question of whether there are conversations that we must have in this country.”
Trump’s threats to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods – and 10% tariffs on energy resources – have renewed the interest of Canadian leaders in energy projects that would reduce the country’s dependence on United States as a trading partner. Even in Quebec, which has long been opposed to a new pipeline, the government has opened the door this week to the possibility that exports of fossil fuels travel to the province.
Critics, however, say that the era of oil oil development in Canada is probably over and that political rhetoric would be needed to relaunch it.
Earlier in the day, Wilkinson told journalists on a Washington, DC call, that it was a risk for Canada to be “so dependent on the United States for oil export”. Almost all of Canada’s crude oil exports – around four million barrels a day – go to the United States. The Trans Mountain pipeline, which was bought by the federal government in 2018 and extends from Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia, is the only oil pipeline that can serve other markets.
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“The Trans Mountain pipeline was not without controversy, but I think that in the current context, it is difficult to claim that it was not an important investment for this country to make,” he said.
Wilkinson has also talked about interior energy security, stressing that Ontario and Quebec are supplied by the Pipeline Enbridge Line 5, which carries Western Canadian Oil by the States of the Great Lakes and in Canada. “We hope it will continue to move forward, but I think we are all aware now that there may be vulnerabilities that we did not really believe existing,” he said. “And I would expect the Prime Minister and the Prime Ministers of the provinces and territories to think about all of this.”
Wilkinson did not specifically mention Energy East, the Alberta Oil Oil offered in New Brunswick which was canceled in 2017. But other leaders did it, notably the Prime Minister of Alberta Danielle Smith and Nova Scotia Prime Minister Tim Houston, who called on the federal government last month to “immediately approve” the project.
Even the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, suggested that Trump’s pricing threats could weaken the firm opposition of Quebecers to a pipeline which, according to him, would transport “dirty energy” through the province. “There is no social acceptability for this type of project right now in Quebec,” he told journalists on Monday. “But of course … What Trump does can change the situation in the future. So, if there is social acceptability, we will be open to this type of project. »»
On Thursday, he said that if a pipeline was proposed, his government would consider it.
However, some experts consult the new interest in pipelines with skepticism. “The signals of major pipeline companies suggest that there is no appetite for another new pipeline,” said Amy Janzwood, assistant professor of political science at McGill University, specializing in pipeline politics.
TC Energy, the former supporter of Energy East, destroyed its crude oil activities in 2023 in South Bow Corp., based in Calgary, in a brief statement, a spokesperson for South Bow said that only Energy East ” been terminated by TC Energy in 2017. “
Janzwood said it is quite possible that there are no more large oil pipelines built in Canada. “There is a lot of risks and uncertainty around the future of bituminous sands,” she said. “Offering a new massive oil pipeline that would considerably increase oil production has no economic sense given the current context.”
In a statement, Melissa Lantsman, federal conservative deputy chief, accused the Liberal government of killing Energy East. She said that a conservative government would repeal Bill C-69, which revised Canada’s environmental assessment process, “to apply the projects so that we can market our resources and bring powerful pay checks.”
A new survey of the Angus Reid Institute this week revealed that four out of five Canadians, including 74% of respondents in Quebec, believe that Canada must make sure it has oil and gas pipelines running out of the sea to the sea across the country ”.
Carol Montreuil, vice-president of the Canadian Fuelle Association, said that people “probably have a different opinion today” on projects like Energy East. “I think that the merit, unfortunately, of the situation that we are now going through with the United States is again to highlight the issue of supply security,” he said. “And this was not sufficiently discussed when some of these projects were canceled.”
But Charles-Edouard Têtu, analyst of climate and energy policies with the Environmental Group Quebec Equiterre, said that he did not think that the current enthusiasm for the pipelines will last. “They bet on a temporary political or economic crisis. Then, to respond, they offer projects that would have permanent consequences, “he said. “Faced with a crisis, they try to rely on opportunism. And it would be the Quebecers who pay at the end. »»
– The Canadian press files’ Kelly Geraldine Malone and Stéphane Blais
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