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CALGARY — Alberta’s premier says she sees promising signs in the first batch of projects announced under Ottawa’s new fast-tracked approval process, but environmentalists warn the inclusion of liquefied natural gas locks Canada into a high-carbon future.
Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday named the first five proposals to be referred to the new Major Projects Office based in Calgary, which aims to speed development of projects deemed in the national interest.
“When I looked at the first five projects, I thought: ‘Finally — they get it,’ because it’s all the projects that have been difficult to build,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters in Edmonton.
“I think that that demonstrates a real shift in the focus of this government.”
Topping the list is the second phase of LNG Canada in Kitimat, B.C., where natural gas piped from Alberta is chilled into a liquid state and loaded onto specialized tankers for export to Asia. First cargoes from the project’s initial phase started making their way across the Pacific this summer.
Proponents of developing more LNG say it would reduce Canada’s reliance on the U.S as a customer for its natural gas by enabling exports to Asia.
“Nation building should secure Canada’s future, not tie us to the polluting past,” said Aly Hyder Ali, oil and gas program manager at Environmental Defence.
“Expanding LNG in a climate crisis is a dangerous mistake.”
Greenpeace Canada said the Carney government is creating a “false narrative” about what constitutes a nation-building project.
“Doubling down on LNG exports from a project that has faced fierce Indigenous opposition makes no sense at a time when wildfires are bringing home the cost of the climate crisis and key markets like China and Europe are turning to solar and wind rather than fossil fuels,” the group said in a news release.
The industry says the buyers are there. The amount of gas being exported from the West Coast could be doubled without any new pipe being put in the ground, said the chief executive of TC Energy, which built the Coastal Gas Link pipeline connecting Alberta and B.C. gas fields to Kitimat.
“The inclusion of LNG Canada’s Phase 2 on the government’s nation-building projects list reflects the essential role energy infrastructure plays in Canada’s economic sovereignty and energy security,” François Poirier said in a news release.
Carney also announced projects that may be added to the fast-track list after some further development, including what he called the “Pathways Plus” carbon capture project proposed by Alberta’s biggest oilsands companies.
“We are going to accelerate work on Pathways. We see this as a potentially viable project,” he told a news conference.
“That creates the opportunity for the ‘plus.” The ‘plus’ is potential pipelines to a variety of potential markets.”
Smith has touted the idea of linking the Pathways project to the approval of a yet-to-be-proposed oil pipeline to the northern B.C. coast as part of a “grand bargain” — a project that would stop oilsands emissions from entering the atmosphere, while allowing another export outlet for Alberta crude.
She said Thursday that a private company should be proposing a potential new pipeline. To date, none have expressed an interest in doing so under current regulatory conditions.
“I think we agree that if it takes the federal government stepping in to build a pipeline, that’s not success. It’s a way to get it done, but success is having enough confidence in the private sector that they step forward to build it,” Smith said.
The initial major projects list also includes the Darlington nuclear project in Bowmanville, Ont. It would make Canada the first G7 country to have operating small modular reactors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.
Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press
