The new energy accord between Alberta and Ottawa is being sold as a grand reset — a promise to get major projects built, push Western oil to Asian markets, and finally sweep aside the regulatory mess that’s been choking investment for years.If it truly results in a pipeline that can move more than a million barrels a day to a deep-water port, that is a big deal. Industry has warned for decades that Canada’s lack of tidewater access costs billions in lost value every year. The National Bank of Canada has noted that limited export capacity has repeatedly forced heavy discounts on Alberta crude compared to world prices. A new line, especially one with indigenous co-ownership, could shift the country’s energy future..UPDATED: Alberta and Ottawa strike sweeping deal to boost oil exports, scrap federal caps and push oil to Asia .But that doesn’t mean Alberta should ignore the price tag buried inside the fine print. And that price is steep.Under this agreement, Alberta is expected to commit to long-term carbon tax rules under the TIER system — which means raising the industrial carbon tax. Ottawa has demanded certainty, and Alberta appears to be giving it. The federal government’s insistence on setting the conditions for Alberta’s own carbon tax is more than just regulatory alignment. It is Ottawa telling Alberta what its industrial costs must be. That is not partnership. That is intrusion..And it is a thumb in Alberta’s eye.Ottawa has never had any legitimate business dictating what Alberta’s carbon tax should be. Natural resources fall under provincial jurisdiction. The Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling on the federal carbon tax may have given Ottawa room to act nationally, but it didn’t erase the basic constitutional reality that the extraction and management of resources belong to the regions, not the federal cabinet..OLDCORN: BC’s pipeline hypocrisy — Eby gets a taste of how Albertans feel.By accepting this deal, Alberta is being asked to surrender ground it never should have had to defend in the first place.Supporters will point to the benefits: shelving the federal emissions cap, suspending the "Clean Electricity Regulations," easing the regulatory pressure that has strangled major projects, and giving industry the certainty it has pleaded for. These are meaningful concessions. The emissions cap alone was considered by many analysts to be unworkable and economically damaging. The Explorers and Producers Association of Canada has long warned that federal layering of rules has driven investment south and overseas..But these gains raise an uncomfortable question: if the federal rules were so damaging, why were they imposed in the first place? And why does Alberta need to pay a toll — an increased industrial carbon tax — to have them lifted?Proponents also highlight the indigenous-led pipeline and the promise of long-term economic partnership. Those are worthy goals. Indigenous ownership in major infrastructure is one of the clearest paths to economic independence, and leaders such as Alexander First Nation Chief George Arcand Jr. have said this project could bring “substantial benefit.” No one should dismiss that..BORG: Lame duck Liberal MPs looking for international positions with cabinet shuffle coming.Still, economic success built on political submission is a dangerous precedent. Alberta should not need to buy back its own autonomy just to get a pipeline approved..The deal’s backers say it marks a new era of “nation building.” But nation building doesn’t happen by eroding the authority of the regions that power the country. Alberta is targeting six million barrels per day by 2030 and eight million by 2035. Those ambitions are bold — and achievable — but only if Alberta maintains control over its own development path.Ottawa will say this is cooperation. Critics will say it’s capitulation. What matters is the long-term consequence: if Alberta accepts that Ottawa can dictate its industrial carbon tax today, then what exactly stops Ottawa from doing it again tomorrow?.OLDCORN: Alberta’s Bill 11 won’t ‘Americanize’ healthcare, it could finally move the needle on wait times.A pipeline to Asia could reshape Canada’s economic future. But Alberta must not trade away the very sovereignty that built its success.
