WAR OF WORDS: Smith allies, Alberta NDP clash over new pipeline proposal, reviving Trans Mountain debate

CALGARY — News of the UCP government's one-million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline proposal being submitted to the Major Projects Office without a private-sector proponent has sparked a war of words between figures close to Premier Danielle Smith and the Alberta NDP.Smith is expected to give a “major announcement” regarding the plan to BC's coast on Thursday, as reports say the Alberta government will be acting as the initial proponent while continuing to seek private-sector investment to come in at a later date.The announcement prompted sharp criticism from former Alberta NDP environment minister Shannon Phillips on social media platform X..“Of course it will be Albertans’ public money fronting a new pipeline,” Phillips said.“Two reasons? 1. What investor in their right mind would sink billions into a project where there’s a secession risk? 2. Canada’s oil industry’s internal monologue: ‘socialism for me, capitalism for thee.’”Her comments drew immediate backlash from Bruce McAllister, executive director of Smith's office, who blamed the NDP and the federal government’s policies for the lack of private investment in major energy infrastructure in Alberta.“The reason there’s been no pipeline is because of people like you and your former leader Jagmeet Singh who partnered with Justin Trudeau to do everything in your power to discourage investment in oil and gas,” McAllister said, adding NDP members and their current federal leader Avi Lewis “literally fight to keep it in the ground.”.“You created the regulatory hell, the endless delays, the court challenges, and the outright hostile climate that drove private capital away. Now you’re concern-trolling about ‘secession risk’ and public money while your side actively works to strangle the industry,” McAllister continued.“You are the epitome of hypocrisy. You have zero credibility on any of this.”The heated exchange quickly escalated, with the Alberta NDP's official X account responding by defending its track record under former premier Rachel Notley..“I think you forgot that Shannon and the NDP got a pipeline built,” the party said, responding to McAllister’s comments.“What have you gotten done in seven years? Where can we see the pipeline you built?”That comment ended up facing pushback from critics who argued the NDP was taking credit for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) — the only major oil export pipeline completed in recent years in Canada — which had been planned and approved before the party took office.“Shannon and the NDP did not get a pipeline built. The pipeline was designed, planned and procured privately before the NDP and Liberals took power,” one X user replied..“The government had to step in as the regulatory process delayed the construction by years, driving costs into the billions.”Another commentator chimed in, saying the NDP “took a private conservative-approved pipeline and delayed it by red tape and harassment until they walked away. Then encouraged the federal Liberals to purchase it with taxpayer money, overspent, over budget and underwhelming TMX.”In recent years, the Alberta NDP has argued that Notley and her cabinet played a key role in advancing TMX by lobbying Ottawa and building support for expanded market access for Alberta crude.During her time in office, Notley frequently pointed to the federal government's approval of TMX in 2016 as evidence that her government's strategy of combining environmental policies with pipeline advocacy was producing results."Because of the work Alberta has done in introducing its Climate Leadership Plan, conversations about pipelines are now easier to have,” Notley said in a joint statement with Trudeau in 2016.However, TMX was first proposed by Kinder Morgan in 2012 under former prime minister Stephen Harper and former Alberta UCP premier Alison Redford..Smith government to submit West Coast pipeline proposal without private-sector proponent.While federal approval came during Notley's tenure, construction was bogged down by legal challenges, regulatory reviews, red tape, and political opposition in BC.In 2018, Kinder Morgan threatened to abandon the project amid mounting uncertainty, which prompted the Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau to purchase the pipeline for $4.5 billion.Years after the Alberta NDP had left office, TMX eventually became operational in 2024 at a cost of over $34 billion — a figure that ballooned far beyond the initial estimates of $5.4 billion and later $7.4 billion in 2017.Currently, both Ottawa and Alberta are seeking to increase Canadian energy exports to Asia, which is seeing growing long-term demand for oil and natural gas because of the conflict in the Middle East.Once the UCP government’s new proposal is submitted, the federal government will have until October 1 to determine whether it is in the national interest under the federal Building Canada Act.

WAR OF WORDS: Smith allies, Alberta NDP clash over new pipeline proposal, reviving Trans Mountain debate

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