The News Rundown

West coast pipeline, private partner, oilsands production and pathways

Alberta has submitted a new pipeline project to the west coast to the major projects office for consideration.
The federal government will make a decision by October 1.
The new pipeline is earmarked to transport more than 1 million barrels a day the west coast to be shipped to asian markets.
The pipeline will follow the route of the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline. This means of course that the right of way is mostly secure and the land acquisition and consultation process can be streamlined.
The idea is that the relationships are already in place along the route, this will make any consultations with stakeholders and indigenous groups easier.
A project like this is exactly what successive Alberta governments had been hoping for. Premier Danielle Smith said, “Canada has everything it needs to become an energy superpower, but only if we build the infrastructure to get our resources to market. Alberta has done its part by putting forward a responsible, world-class proposal and selecting the strongest route to Canada's west coast… This project will define Alberta’s and Canada’s economic future.”
The province and federal government will be working with Trans Mountain and Pembina Pipeline.
Trans Mountain will plan and construct the pipeline while Pembina, in the words of the Prime Minister, will “bring its private-sector expertise and discipline to the construction and operation of the pipeline.”
Recall that Trans Mountain is owned by the government after the company initially bailed on the Trans Mountain expansion while Trudeau was in power federally and the NDP were in power in Alberta.
A northern route with a terminus in Kitimat or the Prince Rupert area would save about 36 hours travel time to Asia. It’s not immediately apparent but when one takes into account the curvature of the earth, northern BC is that much closer to Asia than the lower mainland.
The northern route is what should be built. If a government could snap its fingers and just build without any concern for the environment, stakeholders, or indigenous groups, this is what should be built.
This is what would have been built ages ago and what was going to be built with the cancelled Northern Gateway pipeline.
The compromise of going south instead of north raises many questions.
The first is, why does the tanker ban on BC’s northern coast need to stay in place?
On Thursday while in Alberta, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said, “You got one guy standing in the way of it all, and that's Mark Carney. Provide the permit, let the private sector build it, get out of the way and get it done."
Poilievre also made it clear that he supports the additional pipeline to the south but emphasized the issue that remains.
Poilievre provided facts when providing feedback on the new pipeline route. He highlighted that American tankers transit those same waters. International waters begin 12 nautical miles outside of a country’s border. Which means that American tankers can use the same route that is banned in Canada just outside of that 12 mile envelope.
He also worried that this pipeline will further dependence on the US! Why? Because it’s easier for a tanker leaving Vancouver to go to Oregon or California instead of Asia.
The real story that no one is talking about though is the federal government’s quid pro quo with BC.
The BC tanker ban stays in place, something that David Eby is happy about, something that former federal NDP MP Nathan Cullen called a “huge win for BC and Canada”, and the province also gets a handout of infrastructure cash for work on the Massey tunnel replacement that we just talked about.
BC also gets more money for the Red Chris Mine expansion and clean electricity by way of the North Coast Transmission Line.
In exchange, Eby has said that his government won’t stop the pipeline or challenge it in court.
But that of course doesn’t stop the green advocates from doing that or First Nations groups along the pipeline route. It was initially backlash from these types of people and a government that looked the other way that almost ended the original Trans Mountain expansion.
When you look at who else doesn’t want this pipeline expansion you have to look no further than the federal NDP and its leader Avi Lewis. He said, “This pipeline isn’t nation building. It’s nation burning.”
As a result every journalist in the country should ask the NDP leaders like David Eby, Naheed Nenshi, and Wab Kinew if they support what Lewis said. The NDP constitution says they’re the same party and the provincial parties are a branch of the federal party.
But no journalist has done this.
Alongside this comes the Pathways Project in Alberta as well with a goal of carbon capture and storage.
The media and government sees this as a win for Alberta. They even cited polling the government did last fall on the matter.
As a result they think this should stem the tide of separatism.
The project relies on a government-backed route to the south.
It involves significant taxpayer investment.
Neither Smith nor Carney could specify the exact amount of taxpayer funds involved.
They reassured the public by noting the original TMX expansion is now profitable.
Governments had to take steps to de-risk the project.
These factors fuel skepticism about whether or not Canada works.
The north coast tanker ban is still in place, C-69 or the impact assessment act or no new pipelines bill is only bypassed if the project is declared a national interest, and this seems to be the only opportunity now for an inter-Canada pipeline that the federal government is looking at.
Many are rightly asking, is this a win? Or is there a better way?
Supplementals:

Amelia Boultbee, MLA for Penticton-Summerland, has joined the B.C. NDP, according to the party caucus.
She was initially elected as a B.C. Conservative in 2024, but left the party a year later to become an Independent after expressing dissatisfaction with former party leader John Rustad.
Boultbee said at a news conference Friday that she got into politics to serve her community. Before her election to the B.C. Legislature, Boultbee was a Penticton city councillor.
On Friday, Boultbee took a shot at her former party and its new leader, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, saying the promised "big tent party" is getting smaller by the day: "With a new leader more consumed with divisive, Donald Trump-style populism than with things that actually matter to people, it's clearer now than ever that they're offering no real solutions," she said.
At an unrelated news conference on Friday, Findlay questioned Boultbee's decision: "The question I would have is, why are you joining a sinking ship?"
Ironically, Findlay was speaking in Penticton, Boultbee's riding, where members of the B.C. Conservatives were gathered for their first official meeting of the year. Findlay said: "I have had many wonderful potential candidates come forward to me and say we want to run, we will win this seat back as Conservatives, and we're looking forward to it," she said.
Premier David Eby said Boultbee reached out to his party and no promises were made to her around any specific initiatives. "It was done so on a purely voluntary basis with no offers made to Amelia about what would be delivered to her."
Was the premier really suggesting that Boultbee would be the lone member of the government caucus who would be relegated to base MLA pay with no top-up? Not quite. Initially, said Eby, Boultbee would be expected to spend some time “learning how we do things.” Then “at some point, I hope she’ll take on additional responsibilities.” At which point, Eby’s newest recruit may gain a deeper understanding of how the NDP does things.
His new caucus member has given the NDP a two-seat majority, giving the beleaguered NDP a bit of breathing room in the legislature, no longer having to rely on Speaker Raj Chouhan to break ties.
The untold reality by the mainstream media is that the BC NDP was facing extreme internal pressure. Earlier this year, Eby proposed controversial plans to suspend sections of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). This decision triggered open dissent within his own NDP caucus, with multiple MLAs speaking out. Boultbee joining the caucus now means that votes will be easier for Eby.
Eby didn't absorb Boultbee out of ideological alignment. He did it because his own caucus was fracturing over his handling of DRIPA. Boultbee's seat acts as a shield against potential internal NDP rebellions that could have threatened a non-confidence vote.
Still, the mainstream media has been carrying water for the NDP this week on this deal, saying that the floor-crossing is a centrist win that isolates the extremes of the Conservative party. By embracing a politician who historically advocated against progressive social policies, the NDP is alienating its own left-wing base. As B.C. Green Leader Emily Lowan notes, the NDP's rapid absorption of right-of-centre independents proves that Eby's party is drifting further right to secure corporate and moderate votes. This leaves progressive British Columbians completely unrepresented by the ruling party.
With Boultbee now part of the B.C. NDP, there remain five Independent MLAs in the legislature: Tara Armstrong, MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream; Jordan Kealy of Peace River North; Hon Chan of Richmond Centre; Elenore Sturko of Surrey-Cloverdale; and Dallas Brodie of Vancouver-Quilchena.
One political commentator in B.C. says Boultbee's move prompts questions about what Sturko may do next. David Black, associate professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University said: "Where does that leave Elenor Sturko, who is a centrist like Amelia Boultbee, who I take to be a political ally, perhaps a personal friend of hers? Where does she go from here as the one, lone centrist-Independent MLA, in a ... unofficial caucus of five Independents, two who are up on charges, and two who are much further to the right?"
Kealy is currently facing one charge of sexual assault, while Chan faces three assault charges.
Armstrong and Brodie, meanwhile, formed OneBC in June 2025, after leaving the B.C. Conservatives and sitting as Independents. By December of that year, Armstrong said she and Brodie would once again sit as Independent MLAs, signaling the end of OneBC as an official party in the legislature.
Sturko, a former Conservative MLA, said on social media that she wouldn't be joining the B.C. NDP. In an interview with CBC News, she said she'd been "really close" with Boultbee. Sturko said Boultbee's move is disappointing and upsetting, but she wishes her well.
"You know, I wish her the best. I hope that this is absolutely what her constituents would want," Sturko said, later adding: "I don't support her move that she's made over to the NDP. I don't support the NDP."
This is an ironic statement because just two months ago, ex-colleagues of Boultbee and Sturko accused them of joining the “NDP farm team” and having an “orange epiphany” by voting with 46 NDP legislators when they helped the governing NDP shut down debate on changes to freedom of information rules in a 3 a.m. vote., while the Conservatives, three other Independents and two B.C. Greens voted against. Then on final vote on the bill, she abandoned the NDP and sided with the Opposition parties, necessitating another tie-breaking vote from the Speaker.
Boultbee's voting record in the recent legislative session is also difficult to square with her sudden embrace of the NDP. Take what happened with the enabling law for the government’s landmark treaty with the K’omoks First Nation. Some Conservatives voted with the New Democrats on that one, but Boultbee did not.
Boultbee cast her most telling votes with the Opposition parties and against the NDP budget and related legislation — confidence matters by definition. Both times, the Speaker was pressed into service. She denounced the NDP budget and fiscal plan in scathing detail.
“This budget asks British Columbians to accept a projected $13-billion-plus deficit as business as usual. It asks families to accept mounting debt as inevitable. And it asks small businesses, already struggling under inflation, rising input costs and public safety challenges, to accept new taxes on the very services they rely on to survive.
“This is now one of the largest deficits in British Columbia’s history. Debt is climbing. Interest payments, money that does not build a single hospital bed or hire a single police officer, are consuming billions of dollars that could otherwise go to front-line services. That is not sustainable, it is not compassionate, and it is not responsible.”
Boultbee will now have to answer for the budget she voted against. She said all that less than six months ago. On Friday, there she was, praising those same New Democrats for “leadership that is thoughtful, principled and determined” and declaring “my confidence is with this premier and this caucus.”
Such feckless flip-flopping in Canada’s national parliament prompted the federal New Democrats to introduce a bill last month to require MPs who leave one party and join another to first resign their seats and run in a byelection.
So in effect, Boultbee's blaming of new BC Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay's supposed Trump-style populism, covers up the real issue that the mainstream media ignores. In reality, this is a calculated move by a desperate politician who would likely lose her seat in the next election, joining a party in the NDP that is trying to desperately turn the page on its own policy failures. The underlying political mechanics, juxtaposed against recent NDP decisions and policy shifts, reveal a different narrative.
Supplementals:

Pembina Pipeline Announces Positive Final Investment Decision on the Greenlight Electricity Centre

Pembina Pipeline, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and Kineticor Asset Management have announced that the Greenlight Electricity Centre will be going forward.
The Greenlight Electricity Centre (or GLEC) will produce 932MW of power with the option to expand by doubling to 1864MW.
What could use this much power? An AI data centre from the likes of Google or Meta.
The immediate economic benefits are that this power plant uses natural gas and the gas will be supplied from within Alberta and any power not used will flow back into Alberta’s grid.
The project has a value of $4.6b and the facility is due to be up and running by the second half of 2030.
Scott Burrows, Pembina’s chief executive, said the power project has received all regulatory approvals and that “we see ourselves building a business, not a project.”
He also let on that other data centre developments are likely in the province due to the province positioning itself as an attractive destination for data centre projects.
Specifically because they require long term reliable sources of power which of course comes from gas. Pembina is also excited about a supportive regulatory environment, industrial zoning, and cold winters that can help cool data centres.
The Greenlight project will require about 150 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, with the partners securing long-term commitments from producers to ship on Pembina’s and TC Energy Corp.’s pipeline systems, among other commercial arrangements.
With this singular project the province is not far off from the government’s data centre investment goal with one project according to energy analytics firm Enverus.
Getting ahead of the story:
One of the primary concerns that data centres bring is that they do not contribute to their local economy and suck power from the grid.
Alberta’s policy forces data centres to contract or build dedicated generation before they come into the province.
The Albertan grid to begin with only had about 1.2GW head room and periodically imported from BC, Saskatchewan, and Montana.
In many US jurisdictions the data centre just comes in and taps the grid and residential rate payers are expected to pay the upgrade costs.
Any leftover power from this expansion will add net generation to the grid.
The Alberta template could be an approach that works where resource rich regions develop data centres.
Another big caveat that the anti-data centre crowd often leans on is that a data centre may be displacing farm land and having negative side effects on the adjacent residents.
This data centre is being built in an area already zoned for heavy industry. The footprint is minimal compared to other sites.
Transmission lines, pipelines, and the industrial expertise are already there.
With gas being used to build out dedicated power generation for the data centre this already fits what Alberta has come to know for power generation.
It avoids a lot of the pitfalls associated with transmission upgrade and the discussion around expansion.
The question at the end of the day that many are not asking is: Does attracting power-hungry industry ultimately lower or raise bills for farms, homes, and conventional industry?
The province is fully on-board with the plan and sees the data centre much as we have outlined. However, that discussion really did not get picked up in the media.
On the data centre, Premier Smith said, "Alberta natural gas is powering the digital economy forward with this significant investment in electricity generation. This announcement reflects the positive momentum created by the province's memorandum of understanding with the federal government last fall, including the abeyance of the federal government's Clean Electricity Regulations.”
With Greenlight getting the Greenlight, the province is showing how data centre construction can be done sustainably - that is the angle that the media has primarily missed with this story.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Some Indigenous people wary of Order of Canada’s ‘colonial symbolism’

Indigenous community members have encouraged federal officials to reflect on how the Order of Canada can overcome its “deep colonial symbolism and associations,” says an internal government presentation on efforts to modernize the Canadian honours system.
The April presentation, prepared for the Order of Canada Advisory Council, says recent feedback indicates that accepting the honour “could bring feelings of discomfort or shame” to some Indigenous people due to its colonial associations.
On the other hand, some said the Order of Canada offers an opportunity to advance reconciliation efforts by recognizing Indigenous strength and resilience.
The Privy Council Office’s Impact and Innovation Unit has been working with the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General and the Rideau Hall Foundation to learn more about public awareness of the Order of Canada.
As part of their work, researchers gathered views at an urban Indigenous summit last December and an Indigenous history and heritage gathering in March.
Participants framed achievement in terms of service, shared outcomes and community benefit — which does not always align with an honours system designed to single out individual merit, the presentation says.
“Indigenous perspectives often privilege honouring the contributions of communities as a whole, where community and collective impact matter more than individual distinction,” it reads.
The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the presentation and an associated memo for Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia, the country’s top public servant.
The researchers examined “frictions and barriers” that create undue burdens and complexity for nominators and Chancellery of Honours staff at the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, says the memo to Sabia.
They found problems — including unclear expectations about required information that push nominators into guesswork, and a post-nomination “black box” with little visibility for nominators on next steps, “prompting dissatisfaction and lack of trust,” the memo says.
There was also a lack of triage and clear criteria, causing staff to spend a disproportionate amount of time on files that were unlikely to advance, it says.
The untold story that mainstream media often glints over is that the Order of Canada operates as a closed-loop system of gatekeeping, fundamentally built to recognize Western-style, individualistic achievement while structurally excluding communal, grassroots Indigenous leadership. While standard news headlines focus softly on "colonial feelings" and "symbolic discomfort", independent critics, grassroots activists, and Indigenous policy researchers point to much deeper, systemic flaws that the mainstream press rarely touches.
Despite the Liberal platform’s commitment to diversity, the government has left the core advisory infrastructure of the Order of Canada intact. The nomination process relies heavily on individuals being put forward by established institutions, corporations, or formal networks. Consequently, those doing the most transformative community work are rarely nominated in the first place, filtering them out before an advisory council ever sees their names.
Critics argue that the Order of Canada is inherently built on the Western concept of the "singular hero" or exceptional individual, whereas traditional Indigenous leadership models value community-led progress, collective humility, and consensus.
Opposition parties, particularly the NDP, argue that the Liberal government leans heavily on symbolic acknowledgements and "pretty words" to look progressive. However, they routinely fail to execute critical, tangible changes, leaving major national inquiry recommendations to "sit on a shelf".
Critics point out that commission after commission is launched to study systemic barriers, yet the government avoids taking structural action—such as immediately altering the Eurocentric selection panels—preferring instead to continuously collect evidence and generate memos.
Independent policy researchers note that even under a decade of progressive Liberal governance, the needle has barely moved. Diverse representation—including women and Indigenous individuals—remains stagnant, revealing that internal government modernizations are largely superficial.
While the Carney Liberals continue the information gathering and money spending practices of the Trudeau Liberals on reconciliation, it's clear that nothing tangible is really changing for Indigenous people and their communities. The wariness to the Order of Canada is really just more Liberal arrogance that their way is the best. People are starting to realize that all their talk may be just that - and that no actual actions are being taken to improve their lives.

Quote of the Week

“Canada has everything it needs to become an energy superpower, but only if we build the infrastructure to get our resources to market. Alberta has done its part by putting forward a responsible, world-class proposal and selecting the strongest route to Canada's west coast… This project will define Alberta’s and Canada’s economic future.” - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on a new oil pipeline.

Word of the Week

investment - the outlay of money usually for income or profit

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Show Data

Episode Title: Greenlit Progress
Teaser: Alberta, BC and the federal government agree on a West Coast pipeline proposal, the BC NDP breathe easier after a floor crossing, and Alberta plans a new power plant and data centre. Also, claims that the Order of Canada is colonial miss the larger story.
Production Code: WC-475-2026-07-04
Recorded Date: July 4, 2026
Release Date: July 5, 2026
Duration: 1:11:52
Edit Notes: Pause after BC

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX