QUESTION PERIOD — Natural Resources
Pipeline Projects
March 10, 2026
Government leader, recent figures from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority show that oil exports departing from the port have almost doubled in 2025. Exports of Canadian diluted bitumen to the Indo-Pacific increased by 95% over the past year, reflecting strong demand for Canadian energy, and the expanded capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline is now running at over 90% capacity.
The Prime Minister has been in office now for almost a year, yet there has been no firm commitment to build a new pipeline connecting Alberta’s oil to British Columbia’s tidewater. Government leader, we need a firm date. When will the shovels go into the ground in order to expand our capacity to take our oil from Alberta to tidewater?
Thank you for the question, Senator Housakos. The government was elected to deliver bold nation-building projects that strengthen the economy, reinforce Canadian autonomy and advance Indigenous prosperity while contributing to clean growth and Canada’s climate objective.
Canada and Alberta have agreed on a new framework to build a stronger, more sustainable, more competitive economy while continuing to lower emissions and protect our environment.
Since Canada has the opportunity to become an energy superpower, we will work with the Government of Alberta whenever there is a project on the table, and we will be submitting it to all the criteria that govern our major projects.
Government leader, I didn’t hear a date, not even a time frame in your answer. My concern, and the concern of Canadians, as you can appreciate, is that Prime Minister Carney’s cabinet is full of ministers who were in former Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet who believed there was no business case for Canadian energy. Could it be that those same ministers have not bought into the Prime Minister’s electoral commitments and that they still believe there is no case for Canadian energy? Do we have a commitment here that the Prime Minister, despite the advice of those cabinet ministers, will start putting shovels in the ground and build more pipelines?
In order to have a date, Senator Housakos, you first have to have a project on the table, and then you will have a date. There is one thing for sure: It is quite clear that the government is working hand in hand with the Alberta government to make sure that if there is a project, it will go forward and it will go forward according to Canada’s commitment to have clean energy and reach our environmental objective by 2050.
