Carson Jerema: Carney ensnares Danielle Smith in pipeline blackmail

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in Calgary, Alta on Friday, May 15, 2026. Photo by Brent Calver /Postmedia

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The “plan” to approve a pipeline, which was detailed by the federal and Alberta governments on Friday, is a perfect example, not of federal-provincial co-operation, but of why Canada can’t build infrastructure. Rather than being subject to market demand, the decision to build or not to build is being driven entirely by politics.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her government will bring forward a proposal for a new pipeline to the West Coast by July 1, and in return for it being designated a project of “national interest,” the province will raise its industrial carbon tax from $95/tonne to $130/tonne by 2035. While the price of that tax had been a source of tension in the negotiating process, it is possibly the least of the impediments that any new energy project will face.

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As outlined in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in the fall between Alberta and Ottawa, any pipeline will be contingent on the development of a massive carbon capture facility, while still being subject to much of the typical — read: project-killing — regulations faced by any other project. Not to mention that it will give anti-energy B.C. Premier David Eby an effective veto.

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Ottawa has agreed not to implement a carbon emissions cap in the province, but this is less of a concession, and more a form of extortion to get Alberta to agree to multiple other environmental roadblocks.

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There is, however, another way to ensure infrastructure projects are approved, while maintaining a modicum of environmental standards.

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In fact, Prime Minister Mark Carney could cut the Alberta separatist movement at the knees, reverse years of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s sabotage and ensure Canada is economically competitive no matter what the United States does with a single legislative move: repeal the Impact Assessment Act.

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Of all the Liberal government’s suite of anti-development regulations and taxes, this legislation causes more damage than all of them. Loaded with unnecessarily onerous environmental and political assessments, this is largely why Canada can’t build anything right now.

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It isn’t the only thing this country needs, but in terms of an effort-to-payoff ratio, it can’t be beat, and nothing in the Alberta-Ottawa MOU seriously addresses this problem.

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If we want to build things at speeds we never have before, this is where the government should start. My colleague Jamie Sarkonak outlined the absurdity of this legislation a year ago.

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“Natural Resource Canada’s project inventory was worth $711 billion in 2015, but in 2023, that dropped to $572 billion,” she wrote, citing the Macdonald Laurier Institute. “Had investment kept pace with population increases, it would have reached $985 billion by now.”

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Under the legislation, companies are forced to consider a wide range of social impacts, including access to schools, crime rates and even the ratio of white males to others in nearby communities, on top of the usual environmental reviews.

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Only madness comes from the Impact Assessment Act.

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And Carney seems to know it, which is why he’s been doing everything he can to get around the act, despite keeping the actual legislation in place, presumably out of fear of further angering the environmentalist wing of the Liberal party.