Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the annual Stampede breakfast in Calgary on Monday. Under the MOUs they signed, rail lines built using Ontario steel would connect the province's Ring of Fire region, critical mineral mining projects and processing facilities to Western Canadian ports.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Ontario and Alberta intend to work together to build new oil pipelines, rail lines and other trade infrastructure between the two provinces, and their premiers are demanding Ottawa remove a ream of policies that they say have harmed industry.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford signed two memorandums of understanding on Monday after a morning of flipping pancakes at a Calgary Stampede event. They told reporters U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, as well as continuing global economic uncertainty, mean it’s critical for the two provinces to work together.
Under the non-binding MOUs, the rail lines – built using Ontario steel – would connect Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, critical mineral mining projects and processing facilities to Western Canadian ports.
The agreements also aim to double down on energy security for Ontario, with pipelines that would connect new and existing refineries there to Alberta oil and gas, and expand export opportunities. But the MOUs contain no details about how or by whom these projects would be built.
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Ms. Smith said she has always felt that a pipeline to Ontario “just makes sense from an energy security point of view,” and believes Ontarians would support such a plan.
“The world changed in November, and I think Canadians understand that we’ve got to start acting like a country. We’ve got to start supporting each other,” she said, referring to Mr. Trump’s re-election last fall.
The moves would ease Canada’s reliance on the U.S. as a trade partner and help alleviate problems being caused by the President, Mr. Ford said.
“The days of relying on the United States 100 per cent, they’re gone,” he said, adding that Canada needs to be self-reliant by boosting co-operation between provinces.
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The agreements between Alberta and Ontario are the latest of many attempts, at both federal and provincial levels, to increase interprovincial commerce and collaboration since Mr. Trump took power in January. Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to eliminate federal barriers to interprovincial trade in part through Bill C-5, and several provinces have inked deals with each other to help remove the hurdles.
Ms. Smith and Mr. Ford have taken markedly different approaches to the trade war. Mr. Ford had threatened to cut off electricity exports to the U.S., for example, while Ms. Smith dismissed the idea of tariffs on Canadian energy, calling it a threat to national unity. But the two premiers now seem to be on the same page.
On Monday, Mr. Ford and Ms. Smith also called on the federal government to commit to creating the conditions necessary to strengthen Canada’s economy and competitiveness – including by implementing regulations and policies that would make new oil pipelines a reality.
Mr. Ford said he’s willing to give Mr. Carney the benefit of the doubt – for now.
“I have all the confidence that he’s going to listen to the premiers and straighten out the federal government once and for all, and get rid of the red tape and regulations,” Mr. Ford said.
But, he added, “there’ll be a moment where the rubber hits the road. You can only talk the talk for so long before you start putting some real action around it.”
Mr. Carney told the Calgary Herald over the weekend that a new oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast is “highly likely” to be included on a list of projects deemed to be of national importance to the Canadian government. These projects would be fast-tracked under Bill C-5.
On Monday, Ms. Smith called that “a very positive sentiment.” But she said there is room for more than one pipeline, given forecasts that predict a massive global growth in oil demand.
“Let’s work with the different options that we have on the table right now. There’s many ports we can go to,” she said, including a new deep-sea port in James Bay, in Northern Ontario, which was cited in the MOUs signed Monday.
Energy security has been a long-standing concern in Ontario, where Enbridge’s aging Line 5 pipeline ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products from Superior, Wis., to Sarnia. The pipeline has been at the centre of a dispute between the Calgary-based company and Michigan for years.
A 6.4-kilometre section of it runs underwater through the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. In 2020, citing the risk of oil leaks, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that she would revoke an easement granted in 1953 that allows the pipeline to cross the Straits. This led to a court battle that has yet to be resolved.
“Do you know the disaster that would create in Ontario? We basically shut down Pearson International Airport, the largest airport in the country, and prices would go through the roof,” Mr. Ford said.
Ontario and Alberta also plan to launch a joint feasibility study to help determine the optimal route and end points for new economic and energy corridors, what financing or commercial tools may be necessary and how to best leverage homegrown supply chains to build these projects, including by using Ontario steel.
While Mr. Ford has faced opposition to fast-tracking mining projects in the province, particularly from First Nations, he said any of the potential projects in the MOU would include Indigenous consultation.