Varcoe: As Oct. 1 deadline nears, premier expects West Coast pipeline to be deemed a nation-building project

Premier Danielle Smith remains confident the West Coast pipeline will get a pivotal decision by Oct. 1 from the federal Major Projects Office, one that will determine if the proposal is deemed a development of national importance.

Her government is also putting the finishing touches on a new incentive program that aims to trigger more spending to increase oil and gas output in Alberta — production needed to fill the pipeline.

During a wide-ranging speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Alberta’s premier discussed the province’s pipeline aspirations and the importance of new federal rules that will accelerate tax incentives on capital spending and could help the proposed pipeline.

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“We’re closer than ever to a new oil pipeline carrying more than a million barrels a day to the West Coast and on to a fast track to the growing Asia-Pacific markets,” Smith told the business audience.

“We’re expecting to have an interim decision, sort of conditional approval by Oct. 1st, with final approval by (next) September.”

The province’s plans for a massive bitumen pipeline to the West Coast have been advancing in recent months, following a series of federal and provincial memorandums of understanding.

The mega-project will serve as a key signal to oil producers that they can significantly ramp up output in the coming years without facing egress problems that plagued the sector in the past.

Smith pointed out oil production continues to climb in Alberta and is approaching five million barrels per day (bpd), while the government wants to see output hit eight million by 2035.

Attention is focused on the future of the pipeline, which would extend from Alberta to southern British Columbia, largely following the right-of-way corridor of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline.