{"id":779215,"date":"2026-07-04T06:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/779215\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:13:12","slug":"welcome-to-the-mark-carney-major-projects-sweepstakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/779215\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Mark Carney major projects sweepstakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an infrastructure funding announcement with B.C. Premier David Eby in Vancouver on Thursday.ETHAN CAIRNS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

One of the perverse joys of politics is when an elected official looks you in the eye and tells you that the thing going on directly in front of your face is not happening. <\/p>\n

This happened twice during Mark Carney\u2019s Oprah giveaway day on Thursday: You get a port! And you get a tunnel! And everybody gets a pipeline, whether or not they want one! <\/p>\n

The first came at the tail end of the Prime Minister\u2019s press conference in Vancouver with B.C. Premier David Eby, in which they announced nearly $20-billion in federal commitments for the province\u2019s infrastructure priorities, along with a pledge to uphold the federal tanker ban off B.C.\u2019s North Coast. <\/p>\n

That meant that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith would not get her preferred northern pipeline route, and also that one of Mr. Eby\u2019s deal-breakers had been resolved.<\/p>\n

But after Mr. Eby and Mr. Carney spent 40 minutes extolling all these great things they\u2019d decided to build together simply because it was the right thing to do, a reporter asked the Prime Minister how he would respond to someone who said that the MOU is \u201ca quid pro quo\u201d for his pipeline announcement with Ms. Smith later that same day.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney waved off the idea, saying, \u201cThis is a representation of what we are all trying to accomplish to make Canada more independent, more resilient, more prosperous, more sustainable, more inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it was Mr. Eby\u2019s turn to deny that Mr. Carney had come to town hauling a bag of treats.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the realities of British Columbians is we build big things, we get big things done. And to be honest, we\u2019ve been a bit quiet about it,\u201d the Premier said. \u201cThose days are over.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reduce this deal to being about Alberta is unfair, he said: \u201cIt is a generational federal commitment that we have been asking for for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s summer spending spree lacks detail and transparency, economists assert<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, the Premier also said that the agreement ensures that British Columbians \u201care fairly compensated for the environmental risks\u201d of a potential pipeline, and that he would not fight the project in court.<\/p>\n

So, it would seem that the actual response to anyone inclined to call the B.C. agreement a quid pro quo is: You bet. <\/p>\n

And fair enough, really. Any province in the vicinity of Alberta right now must feel like it\u2019s pretty difficult to make itself heard, so Mr. Eby decided to seize his leverage and make some noise. <\/p>\n

The second instance of that absurd sleight of hand came several hours after the Vancouver announcement when Mr. Carney was in Calgary with Ms. Smith to unveil plans for a new pipeline to southern B.C. It will be built by the federally owned Trans Mountain Corporation, with the private Pembina Pipeline Corporation contributing a small stake.<\/p>\n

That was a stark change from the original plan. The MOU<\/a> that the federal government and Alberta signed with great fanfare in November explicitly called for a pipeline to be \u201cprivate sector constructed and financed.\u201d On Thursday, neither the Premier nor the Prime Minister could answer how much taxpayers could expect to pony up for the project.<\/p>\n

Then, near the end of the press conference, a reporter asked the obvious: Why does the private sector consider this pipeline so risky that it requires government support?<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith ran through a roster of past projects \u2013 Keystone, Energy East, Northern Gateway \u2013 cancelled for one reason or another after fat investments had already been made. It takes some effort to help companies \u201cunderstand that this is a real process\u201d now, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe over time as more and more certainty comes in, maybe we\u2019ll be talking with Scott about him wanting to take on a larger and larger share,\u201d Ms. Smith said, grinning in the direction of Pembina CEO Scott Burrows. \u201cBut we want to make sure that a company knows that we\u2019re walking this path with them so that we can get it to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately after the announcement, Pembina issued a press release<\/a> whose first sentence noted that the agreement was \u201cnon-binding.\u201d It also said that the company\u2019s construction contribution was 10 per cent, with the option for another 10 per cent once the hypothetical pipeline \u201centers commercial operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taxpayers asked to foot the bill for another pipeline<\/a><\/p>\n

A few troubling questions stem from the lack of a private champion for this pipeline. <\/p>\n

One possibility is that this is strategic hesitation, like when a city needs a new stadium or arena. The longer investors waffle, like a cat on the doorstep deciding whether to go in or out, the more public money tends to get plunked down to sweeten the deal. <\/p>\n

The rushed timeline around this pipeline \u2013 and the fact that it\u2019s an olive branch of national unity, not simply economic development \u2013 would only weaken the negotiating position of the public partners. Of course taxpayers are ending up on the hook. <\/p>\n

Ms. Smith likes to talk about \u201cde-risking,\u201d but another word for that same idea \u2013 one she would surely hate \u2013 is subsidizing.<\/p>\n

If the private-sector hesitation is real, then something different seems awry. The entire point of the federal government\u2019s Major Projects Office, its Building Canada Act and indeed the whole thrust of Mr. Carney\u2019s economic policy is to build big things faster. He could hardly have greased the skids any more for this pipeline \u2013 at least within the universe of things he controls, oil supply and demand not being among them. <\/p>\n

But it appears that none of that has been enough to \u2013 say it with me \u2013 catalyze private investment yet.<\/p>\n

So, are taxpayers going to own a money-printing machine, as Ms. Smith likes to portray it, or something much less certain? The delays, shifting government priorities and unpredictable demand that may have scared private investors away from the pipeline still exist \u2013 it\u2019s just that now we\u2019ll all be covering them.<\/p>\n

It makes no sense that Mr. Eby tried to refute the idea that he landed a quid pro quo; he should be crowing that at least his province got a windfall out of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an infrastructure funding announcement with B.C. Premier David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,5152],"class_list":["post-779215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}