Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Ready to Ship Oil Through U.S. to Pacific Buyers

by John Hayward

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Monday that she would like to see an oil pipeline built through British Columbia to the West Coast, but if the pipeline is not built, she would consider shipping Alberta’s oil across the border through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to reach Pacific ports.

“Anytime you can get to the West Coast, it opens up markets to get to Asia,” Smith observed to the National Post during a year-end interview.

Alberta has oil to sell and eager customers in Asia. In November, she envisioned shipping a million barrels per day to Asia to make Canada much less dependent on its top oil customer, the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney supported Smith’s vision with a memorandum of understanding for construction of a new pipeline through British Columbia, coupled with exemptions to the current ban on oil tankers off the B.C. coast.

The move triggered a revolt in Carney’s Liberal Party, which does not like oil or the pipelines that carry it. Some also felt the deal between Carney and Smith marginalized British Columbia and its indigenous residents, who did not have seats at the negotiating table, and reinforced the notion that Alberta is a special province of higher stature than the rest of Canada.

Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault, a former environment minister, resigned his cabinet post to protest the agreement. Guilbeault said he was afraid the pipeline could cause environmental damage to the Great Bear Rainforest, or tankers coming to collect the oil might have spills that damage the British Columbia coastline.

The pipeline controversy prompted Nutrien, a potash company based in Saskatchewan, to abandon its plans for a billion-dollar export terminal in British Columbia and move the project across the border to Washington State instead. Angry Canadian critics accused Nutrien of betraying the national interest to seek bigger profits in the United States.

Last week, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party attempted to pass a motion to build a pipeline to the Pacific, but it was defeated by an alliance between the Liberals, the Greens, and the left-wing NDP party.