The West Coast Pipeline: 1,250 Kilometre Journey Starts With A Single Step

In centuries past, the pronouncements of the King would be made official by nailing the written words to a giant tree in the center of town. Today, government proclamations take the form of bulletins in the Canada Gazette - "the official newspaper of the Canadian Government." Upon this “tree” on Aug. 1, 2026, appeared the declaration that:

In accordance with subsection 5(1.1) of the Building Canada Act (the Act), notice is hereby given that the Governor in Council may amend Schedule 1 of the Act to list the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest. Concurrently, on behalf of the Governor in Council and as the Minister responsible under the Act, the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada — the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc — will consult with the Governments of Alberta and British Columbia, the provinces in which the project would be situated. (Reference)

This is a mouthful that means that there is a legal requirement of a 30-day consultation period for the public to send their opinions on the West Coast Pipeline to the Major Projects Office by a late September deadline. The future timeline of pipeline approval and construction all flows from this announcement. Every small step forward is the most important, until the next one - the actual National Interest designation under Canada's Building Canada Act.

The pipeline would be owned by Trans Mountain, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Pembina Pipeline Corporation. The roughly 1,250-kilometre pipeline would carry upwards of one million barrels of crude oil per day from Bruderheim, Alta. to a port near Delta, B.C. for shipment to international markets. 

As the deal stands now, Alberta gets another pipeline, B.C. chose the route, the Feds get significant concessions from Alberta on carbon pricing and sequestration, while private investors finally get some clarity from the various governments involved.

Many steps are left between here and the coast but this first step could see the project gaining momentum sooner rather than later.