Ontario, Alberta unveil all-Canadian 'Northern Shield' mega-pipeline
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — It’s a plan to keep Canadian oil in Canada.
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On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith unveiled the proposed route for a new 3,300-km crude oil pipeline — stretching from Alberta pipeline headwaters Hardisty, about 180 km southeast of Edmonton, to Sarnia — which promises to be the country’s first pipeline for western oil to reach the east that’s contained completely within Canada.
“Alberta’s aim is to double our oil production in the next 10 to 15 years, and to diversify our export markets,” Smith said at the press conference in Calgary.
“That means not only reaching global customers, but ensuring Canadians can benefit from our resources here at home.”
That vision, she said, is part of Alberta’s efforts to recover from Canada’s “lost decade” of economic stagnation brought about by anti-oil and anti-energy policies introduced by the federal Liberals.
500,000 barrels of oil per day
The “Northern Shield” pipeline is expected to carry upwards of 500,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Ontario.
The project, Smith said, stems from an agreement signed last year between the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to build new pipelines through a west-to-east economic corridor.
“This project would pave the way for barrier-free access to domestic refineries and markets in eastern Canada,” Smith said Monday.
“A new east-west pipeline would move an additional 500,000 barrels of Alberta oil per day, with the potential for future expansion of up to 800,000 barrels per day.”
“Energy security is essential for all countries, and this new corridor will include the concept of a strategic petroleum reserve that will store vital Alberta oil reserves in the Sarnia refinery area to ensure key refined products like diesel, jet fuel and gasoline are uninterrupted,” she added.
All-Canadian route would protect sovereignty
Future plans include continuing the pipeline east to reach the Atlantic, allowing Canadian oil to be shipped to Europe.
Right now, Canada has no single, direct route to ship western oil to the east, with current supply chains relying either on cross-border pipelines or transloading the oil to cross-country tanker cars and shipping it via rail.
Building the Northern Shield, the premiers said, protects Canadian sovereignty by avoiding reliance on American geography and infrastructure to transport Canadian oil within Canada, thanks to the threat of arbitrary tariffs or other belligerent mechanisms to choke Canada’s energy sector by the White House.
Currently, most oil shipments from the west are routed through massive oil hubs in northern Wisconsin, and are piped to Michigan via Enbridge Line 5, where the oil re-enters Canada to Sarnia and points further east in Quebec.
Route would stay entirely in Canada
The route proposed on Monday would leave Hardisty and head southeast along the Prairies to Winnipeg via Regina, cross into Ontario and meander through northern Ontario from Kenora, skirting north of Thunder Bay east to Kapuskasing and the Cochrane area, dip south along the Ontario/Quebec border through North Bay, curve west around Georgian Bay north of the GTA, and end up in Sarnia.
The project leaves the door open for both the Manitoba government and the Manitoba-Crown Indigenous Corporation to explore the feasibility of creating a connection that will bring oil to the Port of Churchill on the western shores of Hudson Bay.
As for who will pay for the project, Ford said all options are on the table — with plans to reach out to the private sector and raid federal and provincial coffers for funds.
“If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s this: we need to take action now to protect Canadian jobs and Canadian families,” Ford said.
“We need to move quicker, faster and immediately.”