Juno News - Smith backs Carney’s latest pipeline proposal

00:00:00.000 it'll be taxpayers on the hook this time if a proposed new oil pipeline from alberta to the

00:00:11.160 west coast gets built premier daniel smith and prime minister carney announced an alternative

00:00:17.720 route for the latest pipeline proposal carney says it'll be a huge economic benefit and this

00:00:24.720 is a lowball figure you don't normally get lowball figures from politicians this is a lowball

00:00:29.740 figure canadians announcements will catalyze well over 200 billion dollars in direct investments in

00:00:36.780 canada create over 175 000 new jobs across the country and we are just getting started these

00:00:46.220 benefits will be shared widely including with indigenous peoples as full partners and they will

00:00:53.580 create resources for the social programs on which canadians rely this is cooperative federalism at

00:01:00.300 work now premier smith dropped her insistence for a pipeline route through northern bc this latest

00:01:07.420 proposal would see it follow the same right of way as the trans mountain pipeline from edmonton to

00:01:13.660 southern british columbia now premier smith says securing private sector investment for the project

00:01:20.540 won't be easy because companies have been burned by governments in the past why do you think that

00:01:26.700 it remains too risky for the private sector to run with it by itself i would say that we did

00:01:35.980 have a number of projects and i can elaborate on them i mean we we did have northern gateway that

00:01:41.820 had all of its approvals and they were then cancelled we did have keystone xl who had all

00:01:46.780 all of its approvals and we're starting to build pipelines across the border and a presidential

00:01:50.720 permit was cancelled. We had Energy East that was a billion dollars into a regulatory approval

00:01:55.240 process and couldn't see the way to a finish line so it was cancelled. So we have pipeline companies

00:01:59.500 that have literally spent billions of dollars in recent years on failed regulatory approval

00:02:04.460 processes. That's the environment we're finding ourselves in. A conservative leader Pierre

00:02:09.620 Polyev says when it comes to getting projects built government has been the problem. We have

00:02:15.220 a solution also to get pipelines built and other projects built. And they are very simple. Get the

00:02:21.000 federal government out of the way. Get the government out of the way and repeal the industrial

00:02:27.380 carbon tax. Get the government out of the way, repeal the anti-development laws C-69. Get the

00:02:32.920 government out of the way and allow shipping of oil off the northwest coast of BC. Get the

00:02:38.840 government out of the way and permit a pipeline immediately upon receiving the path and the

00:02:46.720 proposal from premier danielle smith by getting out of the way we can allow builders to build

00:02:53.560 investors to invest and workers to work our guest today is kirk lubomov business consultant and

00:02:59.600 commentator coming to us from calgary welcome kirk great here excellent thank you i want to play a

00:03:05.780 clip for you. This is Premier Daniel Smith talking about how hard it is to get private investors to

00:03:14.020 go come in on a project these days. As you know, they tabled this new proposal for a pipeline that

00:03:21.440 would basically follow the trajectory of the Trans Mountain Pipeline rather than going through

00:03:27.100 northern BC to the coast, where, of course, now we have a tanker ban continuing to be in place.

00:03:33.480 But let's listen to this clip. This is Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta.

00:03:38.040 After seven months, this project will now require government support in terms of equity.

00:03:47.040 Why do you think that it remains too risky for the private sector to run with it by itself?

00:03:56.140 I would say that we did have a number of projects, and I can elaborate on them.

00:04:02.060 i mean we we did have northern gateway that had all of its approvals and they were then cancelled

00:04:07.180 we did have keystone xl who had all of its approvals and were starting to build pipelines

00:04:11.260 across the border and a presidential permit was cancelled we had energy east that was a billion

00:04:15.980 dollars into a regulatory approval process and couldn't see the way to the finish line so it was

00:04:19.980 cancelled so we have pipeline companies that have literally spent billions of dollars in recent

00:04:25.020 years on failed regulatory approval processes that's the environment we're finding ourselves in

00:04:29.920 Right.

00:04:30.480 They don't want to get burned, Kirk.

00:04:32.280 And frankly, I don't blame them.

00:04:33.920 What do you think?

00:04:36.180 Yeah, the premises of what she said is extremely alarming.

00:04:41.820 And as politicians, you think you'd be listening carefully what comes out of your own mouth.

00:04:47.360 And when businesses tell you, we do not want to put our capital up,

00:04:53.320 We do not trust the playground that you created for us to actually finish building what or even start building what we want to build here.

00:05:03.080 And we need taxpayer dollars essentially babysitting this project.

00:05:08.200 This should be very alarming to policymakers.

00:05:11.740 And it seems like this announcement is such a celebration, but the details and the fundamentals have been completely lost on what's actually happening.

00:05:22.540 and we should not be stepping up with taxpayer dollars to babysit projects

00:05:29.020 just because we can't navigate our own red tape.

00:05:32.640 The government should be removing the red tape.

00:05:35.240 I don't mind the government buying into projects such as a pipeline in general

00:05:39.980 for the benefit of taxpayers directly,

00:05:42.620 but the fact that we have to do it to get anything done in this country

00:05:47.420 is absolutely inappropriate.

00:05:49.080 and i guess the other aspect too is the capitulation on the northern route which she had been pretty

00:05:57.180 strong on for the longest time saying no it's got to go through the fastest route is straight west

00:06:04.020 to the coast to kitamat or wherever and uh unfortunately the ongoing tanker ban makes that

00:06:12.640 argument moot doesn't it yeah absolutely so the issue with this pipeline project is uh it's it's

00:06:21.800 basically announced in the way that this will be the last pipeline project to the west coast

00:06:27.380 in canada and with this tanker band which is essentially shuts down the door uh this this

00:06:34.440 new announcement is going to follow to the tmx route is going to come out of the delta a new

00:06:39.400 port expansion which still requires 10 billion dollars and a lot of work to happen um but yeah

00:06:47.000 it's and it's because it will save years of consultation with first nations and a lot of

00:06:52.700 ngos and activists that don't want it to come out out of uh prince rupert essentially it's not going

00:06:58.360 to come out of kitab but it would have been uh coming out of uh prince rupert and let's remember

00:07:04.220 that this area i'm i'm actually here right now on the coast uh has lng projects has lng tankers

00:07:13.120 has it's one of the busiest ports so there's plenty of activities on the coast here and we

00:07:20.660 still have this bizarre opinion in canada that we ship oil in some kind of wooden boats you know

00:07:28.360 there's over 4 000 active oil tankers every single day in oceans in canada we move 80 million barrels

00:07:37.560 of oil every single day in oceans and 99.997 of it it come leaves point eight and goes to point b

00:07:46.760 with zero spills zero issues or anything that happens along the way and it's one of the most

00:07:53.000 highly it's probably the most successful form of transportation of any good in the world

00:07:58.500 and we're acting like it's you know it's a bunch of people in a rowing boat or something

00:08:02.780 yeah normally you come to us from calgary but you're actually out in the west coast right now

00:08:08.140 is there much discussion there because of course uh if you're going to ship a lot more oil

00:08:15.180 from that area i guess this is south of vancouver then that whole area is going to grow it's going

00:08:21.240 explode right in terms of economic activity is there much buzz around that or is there more

00:08:27.240 cynicism because of what's happened in the past with cancellations of various projects

00:08:33.320 yeah you know it's actually an interesting question because this this area is you know the

00:08:39.480 the southern part of bc is kind of used to it already and the port expansion has to happen

00:08:46.440 uh you know even just for the tmx pipeline expansion they have to uh make the broad uh

00:08:53.160 they have to dredge it they have to make it deeper so the bigger tankers can actually come and

00:08:57.560 get the oil out of it so they can be fully loaded because right now that we can't bring in full

00:09:03.160 tankers to fill up fill them up completely uh so there's a lot of uh waste uh inefficiencies that

00:09:10.120 needs to be done in this part but this part is already kind of used to a lot of movement

00:09:15.080 the unfortunate part is of moving this pipeline from the north coast to the this current route is

00:09:23.640 that this pipeline could have really benefited a lot of small rural communities and it could have

00:09:30.860 you know mark carney was saying that this project would be worth in general close to 200 billion

00:09:37.820 dollars in different uh uh at minimum it in different aspects it will bring 200 billion

00:09:44.140 dollars to the economy and if this that kind of value would have came to the northern communities

00:09:49.740 it would have been absolutely massive and game-changing for a lot of this little towns

00:09:53.900 here so it's such a in an inefficient economic development from you know every single angle

00:10:01.340 i can't hear you i'm sorry let's try that again i wonder if there's a political angle to this as

00:10:13.560 well kirk because the liberals have a lot more support in the vancouver area than they do in

00:10:20.680 northern british columbia where they don't get in at all it's very conservative out there

00:10:26.160 And, I mean, to have built that pipeline straight west to the coast, then that would have been an economic driver for those communities.

00:10:37.980 A lot more people would have moved up there, and eventually that would have translated into economic power.

00:10:43.220 And if it stayed conservative, which is usually the case in areas like that, then they would have gained politically, conservatives would have gained politically over the course of years as a result of having that pipeline go north.

00:11:00.320 Do you think that might be a factor here or not?

00:11:02.320 well well it's an interesting question and because you know when we look back into i think it was

00:11:11.380 soon after mark carney got elected it was one of his first visits to pacific northwest um when he

00:11:18.840 went to haida guai he met with uh essentially a group of first nations or representative which

00:11:25.780 is basically a foreign funded ngo and he told them no pipeline up there so it's it's completely a

00:11:33.940 political influence decision to appease uh certain groups it has nothing to do with rationale or

00:11:41.360 economics remember we a part of this pipeline there's a whole bunch of carbon capture industrial

00:11:48.320 carbon taxes increasing everything and he just chose a route that will create more emissions

00:11:54.820 in general than just running into the west coast and make it quicker remember out of the delta

00:12:01.300 peninsula there they'll still have to go around vancouver ireland around different areas just to

00:12:06.220 go out to the east coast uh to asia and out of the west coast out to out of prince duper they

00:12:13.560 don't have to do it it's just a straight shot and it's it's absolutely bizarre decision all around

00:12:21.180 but it's because they can't navigate their own red tape.

00:12:25.300 Is this a loss, do you think, for Premier Smith,

00:12:28.760 who was, as I said, adamant that it was going to be a northern route,

00:12:34.300 and now here she is basically caving, saying,

00:12:37.500 well, maybe we can do it this way.

00:12:41.180 I mean, which is what the Liberals, I think, wanted and preferred all along. 1.00

00:12:46.560 I mean, they could have rammed it past the First Nations people. 0.97

00:12:49.960 they could have cut deals with those people i cannot believe that opposition from first nations

00:12:56.920 in the northern part of bc was a deal killer i think there must have been more to it than that

00:13:03.400 well i think i think it was a huge part of it and you know listen i don't want to hear a single

00:13:09.080 word from those first nations again about needing money or requiring capital they just said no to

00:13:15.480 billions of dollars in generational multi-generational revenues for uh for their

00:13:21.560 nations so we should not be handing them out any more money it's absolutely insane and i know it

00:13:28.680 will continue but you know the daniel smith factor here to we basically surrendered everything to

00:13:37.480 allow for us to develop our economy you know to create this pipeline we have to spend billions

00:13:45.720 of dollars on taxpayer dollars on a carbon capture project that is not economical we don't know even

00:13:51.720 how much taxpayer dollars is going to cost somewhere around 20 billion dollars is the estimate

00:13:57.320 we had to agree to every single net zero thing uh goal to every single carbon tax and

00:14:05.480 greenhouse emissions that will drive billions of dollars in additional costs

00:14:11.000 to you with the pipeline is one issue the second issue is we need to create

00:14:16.680 more production to actually put stuff in the pipeline to ship stuff out so now we need to

00:14:23.800 attract capital x investment to actually grow our oil and oil sector and to oil sector has

00:14:30.680 really a choice should we invest in canada and face more costs more red tapes but having to find

00:14:36.840 additional things that have nothing to do with our core business or go somewhere else where we can

00:14:41.800 just do our core business without red tape without anything else to just build

00:14:49.240 i mean it's been mixed messages from the federal government that's for sure i mean

00:14:54.520 you've had 10 years of oil is destroying the planet. You know, we've got to stop. We've got to,

00:15:03.160 you know, switch to renewables, wind and solar, net zero, blah, blah, blah. And then

00:15:12.280 a couple of days ago, Mark Carney comes out and says, well, we really don't know how much longer

00:15:17.480 oil is going to be in use, but as long as it is, I think Canada should sell

00:15:21.000 as much of it to the world as possible and then then the day after that he declares a continuation

00:15:28.520 of the tanker ban off the west coast and then you know hours after that he announces this pipeline

00:15:36.360 deal with with uh with her with with premier smith i mean he's just it just sounds like this

00:15:45.000 guy needs to pick a lane what do you think yeah i agree and you know it's parts of part of it is

00:15:53.160 you have to communicate that uh reinforces assurance to the business world and every day

00:15:59.320 it's something else uh you know i'm glad the liberals have finally realized that the oil is

00:16:05.000 not a fab it's going to continue the the bizarre part in their communication is they think it's

00:16:11.960 It's, you know, it's energy-driven.

00:16:15.040 You know, there's thousands of products made out of oil, petroleum products, you know, everything we use every single day, like different plastics, medicine, you name it.

00:16:26.140 And they still think that it's just an energy transition thing.

00:16:31.180 the reality is the more people demand different products the more growth the more roads we pave

00:16:38.260 the more uh people would transition from lower class around the world to um to upper class they

00:16:45.520 demand more products and that's essentially the main driver of oil demand right now uh it's it's

00:16:52.800 it's the biggest driver of oil barrels in parts of the world um and they completely ignore this

00:17:00.340 aspect of it let's remember i think it was like a couple years ago before the carney government

00:17:05.780 uh but they they thought that oil demand is coming to an end which is one of the reasons that they

00:17:12.260 essentially did not want to do any more resource development which is you know they pretty much

00:17:18.180 bought into every single activist nonsense talking point and that and that was the

00:17:25.220 the canadian policy in regards to our resource development which is highly unfortunate

00:17:30.340 I think the final, the other aspect that I want to run past you before we wrap things up is the apparent failure of KUSMA slash USMCA.

00:17:40.580 So that's also another cloud over this country right now.

00:17:45.040 And I'm wondering if he doesn't see oil as kind of a necessary step, because we may not be able to trade as much with the United States as we used to, to rely on that big American market to buy our products.

00:18:02.260 And that means something else has to pick up the slack economically.

00:18:07.860 And yes, I mean, if you believe that they still think oil is demonically evil and is leading to an existential crisis, you know, of, you know, monumental terms, the future of the planet, you know.

00:18:28.740 And now they're flipping on that because they're looking at the economic blowback from the failure of Kuzma and the USMCA and a belligerent administration in Washington that doesn't seem to be all that keen on buying our stuff.

00:18:46.800 To what degree has that played into the Fed's thinking, do you think?

00:18:50.080 well i think they i don't know if this decision has as much to do with tus as much has to do with

00:18:59.180 the global pressures let's remember we had for years different partners from around the world

00:19:05.480 come to us and say we need more energy we need more of your oil and gas and for years we told

00:19:11.800 them there is no business case and now because of the war in iran uh you know the world kind of

00:19:18.160 realize that you can weaponize supply routes and this was the biggest issue you know the most

00:19:26.080 important thing about energy in general is its predictability you can't have supply and stops

00:19:31.460 have supply and then stop and can that can provide predictable energy and i think there was just so 0.90

00:19:39.340 much pressure from around the world in canada to actually get some shit done that it's we're

00:19:43.940 finally getting to it but let's remember that this project will not be finished by 2035 we still have

00:19:50.980 a long time to go and customer is a current situation it's a really serious situation

00:19:56.600 we know any any changes into overall tariff and access structure even one percent of it will cause

00:20:05.700 canada and like a full-blown recession and one of the issues that we have here is if if you look at

00:20:13.080 the last manufacturing reports from the us they're actually growing it starting to grow

00:20:18.520 double digits like the manufacturing industry on a broad spectrum is growing really fast

00:20:25.640 and in canada if you look at the manufacturing specifically it's actually decreasing the number

00:20:30.680 of businesses we have so even if we wanted to pivot and export different industries that's not

00:20:36.600 just our oil and gas we just have we just don't have the ability to do so because we don't have

00:20:42.280 businesses to do so with so again we have to look internally and support entrepreneurship

00:20:49.720 uh instead of you know trying to think that the government can back with taxpayer dollars every

00:20:56.520 single industry in this country kirk another people find you online uh kirk libimov on substack on

00:21:06.600 x and facebook i appreciate you coming on the show today thank you so much thank you

00:21:12.280 if you like the show and you want to see it continue then please become at least consider

00:21:20.600 becoming a premier member of juno news please go to junonews.com backslash straight up you can find

00:21:27.320 the link below helps support independent journalism thank you so much see you next time

Juno News - July 04, 2026

Smith backs Carney’s latest pipeline proposal

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