Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Alberta on Friday to meet with Premier Danielle Smith and announce an update on the memorandum of understanding to build an oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast, Global News has learned.
While sources tell Global News the details of what will be announced aren’t yet finalized, the expected public announcement comes after Smith and Carney met in Ottawa last week.
After the meeting, the premier told Global News she was optimistic about a potential pipeline being built.
“I hope that we’ll be able to announce that we’ve come to an agreement very soon, and that will start paving the way to show Albertans that Canada can work,” Smith said Friday.
Ottawa and Alberta have agreed on many elements of the MOU, which promises to build an oil pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. However, several key sticking points were not resolved by the April 1 deadline.
One of the main outstanding issues is increasing the industrial carbon tax to a minimum of $130 per tonne, which Postmedia has reported has been agreed to by Ottawa and Alberta.
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A trilateral agreement involving Ottawa, Alberta and the energy companies behind the Pathways carbon capture and storage project is also still being negotiated.
Carney has repeatedly referred to the MOU and the proposed pipeline as a “grand bargain,” aimed at increasing oil production while reducing emissions through a carbon capture and storage project that would permanently sequester carbon.
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