By Hugh Holland
For 45 years, Canada’s energy debate has been haunted by the ghost of the 1980 National Energy Program — a moment when Ottawa’s attempt to impose more federal control on natural resources fractured trust between regions and left a legacy of division.
Today, Mark Carney has brokered the first real breakthrough in 45 years: Alberta’s agreement to an industrial carbon price, tied to urgent emission reduction by carbon capture and storage, in exchange for federal support for a pipeline to British Columbia’s Northwest Coast with strict tanker safety measures—a compromise that balances climate responsibility with economic opportunity, and provides a more independent future for the world’s fifth largest oil reserves, signaling that Canada can once again move beyond regional politics toward cooperative nation-building.
Building the new oil pipeline to the west coast would require “targeted adjustments” to the 2019 oil tanker ban on ecologically sensitive waters on the coast of BC. However, it is not unusual to adjust laws when justified by new circumstances. The tax code is a law that is frequently changed according to circumstances.
Trump’s 50% tariff effectively closes the US market to Canadian steel and imposes high costs and supply disruptions on manufacturing and construction projects across Canada, where we conveniently traded steel across the 8.800 km border. Does that not justify countermeasures to make our oil and gas industry less dependent on pipelines to the US?
The new pipeline will use steel from our steel industry. It will help both our oil and steel industries, and all their downstream clients, cope, provided the oil can be shipped safely. There is still work to do to assure people living along the BC coast that insurance companies will insist only right-sized, double-hulled crude oil tankers will be used in specified zones, with today’s space-age navigation systems and escort tugs to prevent grounding in the highly unlikely case of a tanker engine failure.
However, given the volume of coastal traffic that could materialize with shipping both LNG from the second new BC Coastal Gas Link and crude oil from a new Alberta pipeline, it could be better to split the roles, with Kitimat shipping LNG, and with a targeted adjustment to the tanker ban to allow the larger and more open Port of Prince Rupert to ship the crude oil. That seems like a reasonable compromise that would benefit the entire country and avoid an emotionally charged political football that jeopardizes both projects.
Canada has always advanced through bold compromises between regions — from the railways that link East to West, to the pipelines and hydro projects that power our homes and industries, to the social programs that define our shared citizenship. Carney’s agreement is another example: a climate-era bargain that marries emission responsibility with economic opportunity, and coastal safety with national prosperity. It reminds us that Canada’s strength lies in choosing responsibility and cooperation. This breakthrough shows that we can once again rise above regional differences and choose a proactive path toward unity, climate resilience, and prosperity.
Hugh Holland is a retired engineering and manufacturing executive now living in Huntsville, Ontario.
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All Carney has done is make promises;.nothing has been delivered on any of his previous promises, what makes you believe he will carry through.