CALGARY — Alberta has recruited two major pipeline companies as partners in its bid to get national building project status for its one-million-barrel-per-day pipeline to the West Coast.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. and Trans Mountain Corp. have been tapped as partners for the proposed line that the province said Thursday will follow the existing Trans Mountain pipeline corridor to a deepwater marine export terminal located at Roberts Bank on British Columbia’s southwest coast—a significant concession to B.C. after years of Alberta championing a northern export route. 

“This is co-operative federalism at work,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday evening at a press conference in Calgary, where he appeared alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. “It’s the kind of unity and collaboration that Albertans and Canadians rightly expect; they expect it on principle, and they expect it because it’s required for Canada to prosper in a rapidly changing world.” 

The line will be jointly owned by the federal government and the Alberta government, with a “meaningful equity stake” reserved for Indigenous Peoples, according to the agreement released by the Prime Minister’s Office Thursday. 

The agreement did not identify specific Indigenous partners or the size of their proposed ownership stake. In its project proposal, Alberta suggests Indigenous equity would be supported through the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation and the federal Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation. 

Calgary-based Pembina will serve as the project’s minority private partner, with 10 per cent stake during construction, and the option to increase that to 20 per cent once the pipeline is in service. Trans Mountain—the federal Crown corporation that built the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) and operates the line—is expected to lead the project, with expertise and investment from Pembina.

Thursday’s late-breaking joint announcement also revealed a preliminary deal with Canada’s largest oilsands producers aimed at clearing a path for expanded crude exports while committing the industry to advance the long-delayed carbon capture project known as Pathways. Questions remained, however, on what financial or regulatory commitments underpin that deal.

Smith said Thursday that it became clear after close study of both the northern and southern options that the existing TMX corridor offered the “fastest, most cost-effective” path. 

“The window of opportunity is open now,” she said. “We must go all in and seize it. Canada cannot lose another decade or more to delay and inaction.”

Negotiations with the energy industry had intensified in the last two weeks, but participants involved in the talks conceded that key pieces of the tri-party agreement only came together in the last two days. 

“Parts of it came together throughout the last several weeks, but yes, in the last 48 hours, there was a big push by everybody to get it done,” said Rob Anderson, Smith’s chief of staff and lead negotiator for Alberta. 

That any new pipeline must take a southerly route had become clear earlier in the day, when Carney and B.C. Premier David Eby announced a deal under which the provincial government would consent to the project.

A key provision: the current federal ban on tankers loading up at ports on B.C.’s northern coast remains intact, which means the line must follow a less controversial path than the northerly one Alberta had previously floated.

The Ottawa-Victoria deal also promises that B.C. will “share meaningfully in the economic upside of the project,” likely through an annual royalty payment and a fund to pay for environmental damage from any future leaks. In exchange, British Columbia “commits to acting in good faith to engage in the necessary routing and permitting discussions, within its jurisdiction.”

When Carney and Smith agreed on the outline of a pipeline plan last fall, Eby complained that it was a distraction from more realistic projects that would be good for the economy sooner.

The announcement marks a significant step forward for a project that until this week had no private-sector proponent or partner, and had been viewed by many in the energy industry as more of a political ambition than an investable project.

The proposed pipeline now moves to Ottawa’s Major Projects Office, which will determine whether it should be designated a project of national interest. (The head of that office, Dawn Farrell, is a former president and CEO of Trans Mountain.) Consultations with Indigenous groups will begin immediately, Carney said. 

If approved, the pipeline would enter a fast-track federal review process while the governments, Trans Mountain and Pembina finalize commercial agreements. 

“This is going to happen,” said Anderson following the announcement. “We’re going to have a pipeline to the West Coast, and we’re going to fill that pipeline with Alberta oil.

“It’s becoming more real for people because we’ve got goodwill between all the parties that need to be aligned.”

With files from David Reevely in Ottawa