Alberta mayors along proposed new pipeline route rally behind project

Alberta mayors along proposed new pipeline route rally behind project

Pipeline projected to bring more than 1 million barrels of oil per day to B.C.’s southwest coast

Mayors along the route for Canada’s proposed new West Coast pipeline hope the project will bring economic growth once bitumen starts flowing through their communities.

After a decade of cancelled energy projects and economic stagnation, the mayors say they need to be optimistic the project will be built.

The pipeline is designed to start 47 kilometres northeast of Edmonton in the town of Bruderheim. The community of 1,400 people was also supposed to be the starting point of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, a proposed westbound pipeline that was cancelled in 2016.

“It’s too early to speculate successes and failures, so we’ll take it a day at a time,” Bruderheim Mayor Ron Ewasiuk said in an interview with CBC News on Friday. “As a town that had very little growth in the last 20 years, any positive growth would be a great thing.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province’s pipeline application to the federal Major Projects Office during a Thursday evening news conference in Calgary where she was joined by Prime Minister Mark Carney.

If the project is designated as being in the national interest by the federal government before Oct. 1, construction is expected to be finished between 2032 and 2034 at a cost of $35.2 billion to $43.7 billion. The pipeline is designed to travel roughly 1,200 kilometres along the same path of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

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Once completed, Alberta’s government said more than one million barrels of oil per day would be brought to the Roberts Bank Terminal in Delta, B.C., and loaded onto tankers bound for Asian markets. Meanwhile, the oilsands would more than double production to eight million barrels per day over a 10- to 15-year period.

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) Mayor Sandy Bowman said in a statement to CBC News that he believes the project is “an investment in the prosperity of all Canadians.”

Edson Mayor Kevin Zahara said he is optimistic the project will be built after watching Thursday’s announcement.

Zaraha said the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) project was a boost for the region’s economy. He predicts other communities along the new pipeline’s route will see those same spinoffs.

“When TMX got cancelled or postponed the first time, it was a devastating blow to our community,” he told CBC News. “But we're in a much different time right now.

“I think this is in the national interest. It's really important that it goes through, not only for our region, but our province and our country.”

People involved in the construction industry in communities along the route are also excited about the project. Keith Plowman, president of the Fort McMurray Construction Association, is among those. He said work has been slow for his membership in recent years and some companies have not built any new homes in that time.

New oil pipeline proposal raises hopes and concerns in B.C.'s Interior

Plowman has seen other energy projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline be cancelled in the last decade. But he said he hopes Thursday’s announcement will be seen as an invitation to more investment in northern Alberta.

“There’s a lot of people that are still skeptical [about whether] this is actually going to happen or not, but if we’re announcing it, then at least we’re on the right track,” Plowman told CBC News.

“We have heard some of these announcements before. You know, cross our fingers that this is actually going to stick and we’re going to make this pipeline work.”

Vincent McDermott covers Fort McMurray and the Wood Buffalo region for CBC News. He was previously the editor of Fort McMurray Today, where he was part of a team that won a National Newspaper Award for coverage of the 2016 Horse River Wildfire. He is also a former contributor to the official magazine of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He can be reached at vincent.mcdermott@cbc.ca