{"id":892798,"date":"2026-09-12T08:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892798\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T08:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:42:22","slug":"alberta-mulls-creating-crown-corporation-to-boost-natural-gas-pipeline-development-lure-ai-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892798\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta mulls creating Crown corporation to boost natural gas pipeline development, lure AI data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

TC Energy headquarters. A cabinet briefing document outlines a plan to provide natural gas producers with ‘several viable alternatives’ to the NGTL conduit, which the Calgary company owns and operates.Todd Korol\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Alberta government is considering establishing a Crown corporation to boost the development of natural gas pipelines as part of its push to attract more power-hungry data centres to the province.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith has enthusiastically pitched Alberta as a prime destination for artificial-intelligence data centres, pointing to the province\u2019s abundant supplies of natural gas for electricity production and its cooler climate. <\/p>\n

But a recent cabinet briefing document, first uncovered by The Narwhal and subsequently obtained by The Globe and Mail, says a lack of competition within the natural gas pipeline sector and insufficient transportation capacity means the province could miss out. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf investors cannot secure timely access to a reliable natural-gas supply, Alberta risks losing these types of investments to other jurisdictions,\u201d says the document, which was prepared by the Energy and Minerals ministry.<\/p>\n

The document, titled \u201cBuilding a modern natural-gas access framework for Alberta\u2019s future,\u201d proposes creating two new Crown corporations.<\/p>\n

The first would carry out \u201csystem-wide planning for gas infrastructure to address demand needs across the province.\u201d The other would \u201cconstruct, own or backstop gas infrastructure,\u201d and would \u201censure identified infrastructure needs are met where incumbent utilities decline to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It reasons that the corporations would help boost competition in the natural gas transportation sector by bringing in new market players, facilitating more shipping solutions and providing the province with greater regulatory autonomy over infrastructure development. <\/p>\n

The document suggests full implementation would cost between $53.9-million and $162.6-million.<\/p>\n

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In an e-mailed statement, the office of Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said internal materials don\u2019t represent government decisions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jean\u2019s office continued that an \u201cincreasing number of project proponents across a variety of industries have raised concerns about accessing industrial quantities of natural gas in several regions of Alberta.\u201d It added that the government is trying to \u201cidentify practical solutions that support future growth and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of the plan in the document is providing natural gas producers with \u201cseveral viable alternatives\u201d to the NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL), which is owned and operated by Calgary-based TC Energy. It is the province\u2019s largest natural gas transportation system, connecting most of the production in Western Canada to domestic and export markets. <\/p>\n

But the conduit will run at or near capacity through 2029. TC Energy has \u201climited plans\u201d for new capital investment past 2030, the document says, because its return on equity from the line is lower than from its investments in the United States.<\/p>\n

Its returns south of the border average around 14 per cent, whereas NGTL is closer to 10 per cent, the document says. Indeed, TC Energy chief executive Fran\u00e7ois Poirier has said that his company intends to stick to lower-risk expansions in the U.S.<\/a>, rather than in Canada.<\/p>\n

A full-capacity NGTL is a problem for Alberta\u2019s data-centre strategy, the document says, because the province cannot guarantee timely expansion of gas transmission capacity to support new demand. <\/p>\n

Even so, it acknowledges that attempting to build gas transmission infrastructure in advance of projected demand growth would increase the financial risks to a future Crown corporation.<\/p>\n

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The document criticizes TC Energy several times. <\/p>\n

Not only has TC Energy\u2019s market dominance via the NGTL led to \u201cdownstream service reliability risks,\u201d it says, the company\u2019s \u201cunderinvestment in NGTL pipeline capacity has caused a market failure in the natural-gas sector leaving key growth regions unable to access gas.\u201d <\/p>\n

In all, it concludes, the company\u2019s future plans for NGTL are \u201cmisaligned with the Government of Alberta\u2019s projected demand for natural gas in the province.\u201d <\/p>\n

The document says that government has been engaging with TC since 2024 to address its worries about pipeline constraints, including operational and policy discussions at the department level and strategic meetings between Ms. Smith and TC\u2019s executive leadership.<\/p>\n

But \u201cTC Energy\u2019s proposed solutions fell short,\u201d the document says. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the extensive discussions with TC Energy since 2024 that have produced no viable solutions to date, and the time-sensitive opportunities available to Alberta, escalatory and direct measures are now required.\u201d<\/p>\n

TC Energy did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

The government\u2019s push toward AI computing infrastructure has been controversial. Alberta Technology Minister Nate Glubish faced lineups of furious residents in August at town halls discussing the government\u2019s plans for attracting data centres, reflecting a growing backlash to AI across North America that has transcended political leanings.<\/p>\n

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Ms. Smith has pressed ahead, joining Meta in July when the company announced it was planning to spend more than $13-billion to build a massive data centre north of Edmonton. Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI giant behind the Claude chatbot, recently posted a job hiring for a data-centre community-engagement manager based in Alberta to make the company \u201ca trusted, visible and valued neighbour.\u201d<\/p>\n

But advancing Alberta\u2019s Al data-centre strategy \u201cdepends on reliable access to natural-gas service,\u201d says the document prepared for cabinet – hence the need for change.<\/p>\n

Alongside Crown corporations, it is considering new legislative instruments that would enable government to introduce competition into natural gas infrastructure \u201cwhere, in the opinion of the Minister, the marketplace is restricting competition to the detriment of the public interest including the broader social, economic and environmental goals of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it notes, doing so \u201cmay create near-term investor uncertainty at the same time the Government of Alberta is actively courting hyper-scale data centre capital and other investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The briefing document also says that the changes being proposed could lead to litigation from industry \u2013 including TC Energy \u2013 suggesting legal defence could cost between $2-million to $8-million. It also raises the point of potential legal action from Indigenous communities over the lack of consultation on proposed projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: TC Energy headquarters. A cabinet briefing document outlines a plan to provide natural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-892798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892798","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=892798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}