Mark Carney's Tar Sands Pipeline Deal With Alberta Premier Rapidly Turning Into An Environmental & Financial Shitshow

It has been three months since Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a new bitumen oil pipeline to the west coast. With an April 1 deadline for a final deal with the oil industry only a month away, how are negotiations for this “grand bargain” going? Private sector investors are still nowhere in sight. If a pipeline and associated Pathways Alliance carbon capture and storage (CCS) project goes ahead, Canadian taxpayers will be unsurprisingly footing most of the bill. The signing deadline will almost certainly be missed, and most major stakeholders are in open conflict. In other words, not great.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is already demanding major concessions to water down industrial carbon pricing meant to finance the Pathways project. Environmental groups fault the federal government for giving up a laundry list of important climate policies including a proposed emissions cap, clean energy regulations, and the greenwashing provisions in the Competition Act. Ottawa committed to waiving the oil tanker ban on the north British Columbia coast, enraging local First Nations whose Traditional Territories would be decimated by an oil spill. The feds also caved on contentious tax credits for enhanced oil recovery from CCS and further delayed methane reduction targets. Despite such sweeping capitulations, no private pipeline proponent has come forward, and it is now obvious that none will.

Former Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said that industry still expects taxpayers to open their wallets for this latest oil patch boondoggle. Enbridge spilled the same tea on an earnings call with investors. When asked if his company would be the mythical pipeline proponent, CEO Greg Ebel said, “that’s not the type of risk that we’re looking to take on at this time. We don’t need to with all the other opportunities.”

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The root of this impasse is an endemic sense of entitlement of Canada’s most coddled industry. The non-profit Pembina Institute points out that if Alberta gets a bespoke policy carve-out for methane reductions, it would be grossly unfair to other industrial emitters across the country putting in the hard work and investments required to lower climate destabilizing emissions. Despite the federal government being on the hook for up to half of the Pathways project and billions more in subsidies from Alberta, the largest bitumen producers still refuse to pony up any of their own money.

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https://www.desmog.com/2026/03/05/mark-carneys-pipeline-mou-with-danielle-smith-has-been-a-disaster/