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When Martha Hall Findlay heard Canada’s prime minister and Alberta’s premier speak with enthusiasm Thursday about the necessity of the Pathways carbon capture project to their long-promised “grand bargain,” she felt herself moved.
“The support wasn’t always there … to have those two in those roles talk about how absolutely critical the Pathways project will be to making all of this happen, I felt like I wanted to cry,” said the former Liberal MP and oilsands executive, who played a key role in the development of the Pathways Alliance.
She’s currently the director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.
“For those of us who’ve been working on some of these things for a long time and feeling like sometimes it was just like banging our head against a wall, or a few walls … there’s a huge amount to do, but today was extraordinary.”
Martha Hall Findlay spoke to reporters on Thursday, after the announcement of an energy deal between Alberta and Ottawa. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
On Thursday, Alberta and Ottawa reached an agreement that laid out the groundwork for a new bitumen pipeline through British Columbia, part of a suite of changes to Ottawa’s environmental regulatory landscape that charts a course for the country’s energy sector over the coming decades.
As a precondition to the approval of a bitumen pipeline, federal officials said Pathways Plus must move ahead.
That’s the major project proposed by the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of major Canadian oilsands companies that have committed to achieving net-zero emissions from oilsands production by 2050.
It would see a major carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project established near Cold Lake, Alta., trap carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta before being transported 400 kilometres by pipeline to a terminal in the eastern part of the province. The companies first proposed the project in 2022.
“Pathways Alliance appreciates Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s leadership to create the conditions for growth of this important industry and its associated contribution to the Canadian economy,” reads an emailed statement attributed to Kendall Dilling, the CEO of Pathways Alliance.
“Canadian oil is an important economic driver for the country while supporting energy security in an uncertain world.
“We look forward to working with the Alberta and federal governments in the coming months on their shared objective of establishing Canada as a global energy superpower.”
Pathways Alliance CEO Kendall Dilling is pictured in a file photo. In a statement Thursday, Dilling said that the agreement between Ottawa and Alberta represented ‘important progress’ toward growing the energy industry in the country.
(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)’Almost fatalistic uncertainty’
The categorical commitment to the project is a striking development for those who have studied and evaluated Pathways over the years.
Peter Findlay, the director of CCUS and carbon management global with Wood Mackenzie, said his research and consulting firm has done detailed economic valuations of Pathways for about two years now.
He said that under the previous iteration of the federal government, there was an “ongoing and eventually almost fatalistic uncertainty” related to policies tied to carbon capture, utilization and storage along with various other federal policies, which made it hard for companies to justify major investments.
“To get general, rough, at least directional understanding as to where the policy should go, is certainly an accomplishment for those aiming for that type of an agreement,” Findlay said.
WATCH | Carney, Smith sign framework that offers political support for oil pipeline:
Carney, Smith sign framework that offers political support for oil pipeline
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney sign a memorandum of understanding that would give the province special exemptions from federal environmental laws and offer political support for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, if certain conditions are met.
But big questions remain around the economics behind all of this.
Findlay said companies need confidence that future oil economics will justify supporting a new pipeline while also investing in carbon capture.
“The government can sweeten that to an extent that it does work for the producers, but there’s a point where the taxpayers don’t want to pay for that either,” he said.
Significant challenges remain
Alignment between the federal and provincial governments is certainly a significant development for the project, which experts warned at the start of this year was at risk of being derailed.
But it still faces some significant opposition. Earlier this month, the environmental group Environmental Defence wrote in a release that the technology had “repeatedly failed to deliver on its promises” and that the Pathways Alliance was “a pathway to another wasteful industry handout.”
“These wealthy corporations are looking for a handout of taxpayer money, not to support the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but to build questionable technology that will allow them to continue mining bitumen in the oilsands, while increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry,” the release reads.
WATCH | Are carbon capture promises overshadowing Canada’s climate pledges?:
Are carbon capture promises overshadowing Canada’s climate pledges?
Mark Winfield, a professor of environmental and urban change at York University, says he is worried about the long-term impacts of the memorandum of understanding signed by Alberta and Ottawa on Thursday. He says it sends a signal Canada is deprioritizing climate change action by focusing on the unproven technology of carbon capture and storage, and feels it could have an impact beyond oil and gas — including how it affects provincial clean electricity targets.
Affected Indigenous groups have also raised safety concerns about the project for years, with Chief Kelsey Jacko of Cold Lake First Nations telling CBC News earlier this week that those have yet to be answered.
“It’s frustrating when people are having talks and we’re absent from the table. At the end of the day, I just want my people to be safe,” Jacko said.
LISTEN | Cold Lake First Nations concerned about carbon capture project:
Edmonton AM9:25Cold Lake First Nations concerned about carbon capture project
The Cold Lake First Nations is raising concerns about a neighbouring carbon capture project proposed by Pathways Alliance. The project was highlighted as a priority for the next wave of nation-building projects that Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to fast-track. Chief Kelsey Jacko from Cold Lake First Nations joins us.
Others have questions about economics, including former Alberta premier Jason Kenney. While he said the deal represented “huge progress,” Kenney expressed concern on X about the Alberta government increasing its industrial carbon price to $130 per tonne, paired with the capital that would be needed to advance the Pathways project.
“Encumbering our industry with costs not borne [by] any other major energy producer in the world makes no sense,” he wrote.
The Pathways Plus project would be the world’s largest carbon capture, utilization and storage project, the federal government says.