By Don Newman

November 14, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement Thursday of seven more projects to be referred to the Major Projects Office was much like his first announcement of projects in September. It was underwhelming.

It’s not easy to be underwhelming when you’re announcing projects deemed to be “nation-building,” and worth billions of dollars if they were all approved. It was underwhelming because Carney and the Liberal government again refused to bite the bullet and commit to the new pipelines proposed by the Premiers of Alberta Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Instead, Carney and some of his ministers have been coyly floating the possibility of new pipelines but have stopped short of a commitment. A favourable decision on pipelines, or at least one of the proposed pipelines, would have not just economic implications but also political implications throughout the country.

Three projects have been proposed by the provinces to get either oil sands bitumen oil or natural gas to each of Canada’s three coasts. An oil pipeline from Alberta to the west coast in British Columbia, an oil and perhaps natural gas pipeline to Canada ‘s north coast at the  port of Churchill on the west coast of Hudson’s Bay on the Arctic Ocean, and a revised plan for Energy East, to supply Alberta oil and natural gas to eastern Canada and export markets in Europe and beyond from St. John New Brunswick on the Atlantic Ocean.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been pushing particularly hard for the west-coast pipeline. Smith has announced that her government will act as the sponsor of the pipeline if no private sector offers come forward. She has said she is confident private-sector backers will emerge as soon as a pipeline proposal is green lighted to go to the Major Projects Office. On Thursday, Smith said that she approved of Carney’s latest list and that negotiations with Ottawa on pipeline approval are ongoing.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been pushing particularly hard for the west-coast pipeline.

The MPO speeds up projects deemed in the national interest by giving exemptions from some required permitting and environmental approvals and granting the go-ahead after a single assessment of the proposal. Government spokespeople claim the streamlined MPO process will cut project approval times from between five and seven years to two years.

Premier Smith is dealing with and protecting her political base from a nascent separatist movement in Alberta. The separatists are hoping for a referendum asking whether the province should remain a part of Canada. The assumption by the referendum backers is that Alberta would become part of the United States. Even the unlikely prospect of that is unsettling when U.S. President Donald Trump has been openly musing about all of Canada becoming the American 51st state.

Even if a successful referendum is unlikely, failure to move on at least one of the pipeline proposals could have serious national unity consequences. While the pipeline-opposed Justin Trudeau was prime minister, tensions between the west and Ottawa were coming to a boil. His replacement by Carney, who says Canada must build big, build better and fast has helped eased tensions. So has his repeated statement that Canada should be both a conventional and emerging-energy superpower.

Carney has also said that the Pathways carbon-capture project proposed by the big oil sands companies must be part of a pipeline strategy. The companies have been talking about a plan and identified a site for a storage facility, but the project has gone no farther.

Despite the fact that both the pipeline and Pathways face Alberta-imposed limitations, nominating both the pipeline and the Pathways project as worthy candidates for the MPO must be done soon. Any further delay will have consequences not only for the economic future of Canada, but the political future as well.

Policy Columnist Don Newman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a lifetime member and a past president of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.