PJ The Belt - The Alberta & Alaska MERGER They Tried To Keep SECRET!

00:00:00.000 What if I told you there was a connection, an economic union between Alberta and Alaska

00:00:05.900 that you probably had no idea existed, a project so big that it would change the relationship

00:00:11.680 between the state of Alaska and the province of Alberta forever. It would also bring massive

00:00:18.120 change to Canada's north, including the Yukon and northern British Columbia, creating thousands of

00:00:25.580 jobs for Americans in Alaska as well as Albertans. A major infrastructure project cleared a significant

00:00:32.000 hurdle and it could lead to more exports from Canada's oil patch. The Alaska to Alberta Railway

00:00:37.820 would start in the heart of the oil sands and serve as a transportation corridor to Anchorage and then

00:00:43.220 on to Asia. But as Michael Couture reports, a number of steps remain before the project becomes a reality.

00:00:49.660 The proposed project is called the Alaska to Alberta Railway and would stretch more than

00:00:54.580 2,500 kilometres from Fort McMurray to the port in Anchorage. It's still in the planning stages,

00:01:01.180 but the company is already talking about economic benefits for northern Canada.

00:01:05.340 This is going to bring, you know, 18,000 plus jobs during construction.

00:01:09.460 It's also being touted as a lifeline for other supplies to flow faster to northern communities.

00:01:15.340 The project was just given a presidential permit to go ahead, but the issue could be on this side of

00:01:21.620 the border. The Liberal government had been criticized by the courts for not properly consulting Indigenous

00:01:28.220 communities on the Trans Mountain Pipeline project leading to delays.

00:01:32.220 I am very pleased to have the opportunity to follow up on a very exciting issue that I first raised in this

00:01:37.820 House last month, the Alaska to Alberta Railway. I was glad to see in the news last month the

00:01:43.820 announcement by the Alaska to Alberta Railway Development Corporation that they had secured the

00:01:48.980 necessary American permit to move that project forward. This railway will be tremendously beneficial

00:01:54.940 to Canadians for a number of reasons. First, the costs of this railway are all being paid for

00:02:00.700 by the private sector. The Alaska to Alberta Railway Development Corporation is a private sector business

00:02:06.860 that is willing to put up $17 billion of investors' money to move that project forward. The only ask of the

00:02:14.780 federal government is to rubber stamp that permit so that the project can move ahead. Second, this project will

00:02:23.100 create jobs, lots of jobs, 28,000 good high paying jobs for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people

00:02:31.820 in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and the rest of Western Canada. A few years back, a private company

00:02:38.380 called A2A Rail pitched a massive line running from Northern Alberta up through the Yukon and into Alaska,

00:02:46.860 opening a direct route to deep sea water ports and moving Alberta resources to global markets

00:02:52.700 faster. It was touted as a game changer with billions in investment and thousands of jobs.

00:02:58.380 But in 2021, the project was paused. The CBC reported that A2A filed for creditor protection

00:03:04.860 after its main financer collapsed and financial investigations surfaced. Fast forward to today and

00:03:12.140 the red line isn't dead, it's just sitting on the shelf. Premier Daniel Smith and Alaska's governor met as

00:03:18.140 recently as last year and said that they still see value in reviving the Fermat Miri to Alaska corridor,

00:03:25.580 calling it a shared priority between the two jurisdictions. And here's the real takeaway. Even

00:03:32.460 if the project is paused currently, it proves that Alberta and the United States share a lot more in

00:03:39.260 common than Alberta does with the rest of Canada. I mean, literally think about it. You have British 0.99

00:03:46.220 Columbia, which is supposed to be part of the same country as Alberta, making it nearly impossible for

00:03:54.140 Alberta to build a pipeline to the north, saying they're not interested in Alberta's dirty oil. You have

00:04:00.860 the governor of Alaska, just north of BC saying, work with us, we'd be happy to have you. You're looking at

00:04:07.500 two sides much more willing to work with each other in energy, trade and transportation. Plus,

00:04:14.780 they seem to have a lot more in common, culturally speaking, and priority wise. This entire situation

00:04:21.340 paints a very clear picture, especially when it comes to the topic of Alberta independence, or even

00:04:27.180 Alberta 51. While so-called fellow Canadians in the BC government seem to be impossible to work with,

00:04:34.860 the state of Alaska is more than ready to work with Alberta to bring our product to their ports. You

00:04:41.100 also have a president in Washington DC who approved the project previously very quickly and views Alberta

00:04:48.060 with a favorable eye, unlike the Liberals in Ottawa. Seems fairly easy to decide which partner to work with,

00:04:55.180 don't you think? Okay, so what has happened with this massive project since they announced that it

00:05:01.420 will be paused? The CBC had an article dated June 23rd 2021 explaining what had happened up to that point.

00:05:09.820 Title goes, Alberta to Alaska Rail Project files for creditor protection after lender goes into receivership

00:05:17.420 against bankruptcy. This is dated June of 2021. A2A Rail, the corporation pledging to build a $22 billion

00:05:26.380 freight railway connecting Alaska and Alberta had filed for creditor protection. The Calgary-based

00:05:31.740 company said the protection will allow it to pursue a court supervised sale or refinancing of the

00:05:37.660 development stage of the project after its main lender, Bridging Finance, was placed in receivership in April.

00:05:44.380 Quote, earlier this month, the court-appointed receiver of Bridging Finance, Price Waterhouse

00:05:51.740 Coopers, called a $149 million loan made to A2A by Bridging Finance. To protect against the company's

00:05:58.540 assets being liquidated, A2A obtained a creditor protection late Friday, the company said in a

00:06:04.220 release Wednesday. Questions surround company's founder. A2A Rail said the refinancing process will not

00:06:11.500 involve company founder Sean Makoshin and instead will be driven by a third-party consultant.

00:06:20.060 An investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission found numerous financial irregularities

00:06:25.580 surrounding Makoshin's dealings with Bridging. The founder's name has been removed from A2A Rail's

00:06:32.780 website. According to the commission's investigation, one of Makoshin's companies made

00:06:37.900 19.5 million in undisclosed payments to the personal check-in account of Bridging's CEO

00:06:45.260 David Sharp during the same period that Bridging loaned more than a hundred million to Makoshin's

00:06:51.900 other companies. Millions of dollars pledged for A2A Rail also went to Makoshin's personal bank account

00:06:58.460 into an apparently unrelated company controlled by him. Oh boy, so there were financial shenanigans going

00:07:06.940 on with the with the CEO, the main guy, apparently. Sharp closed his personal account just days after

00:07:14.780 commission enforcement, after commission enforcement staff questioned him about his relationship with

00:07:21.260 Makoshin. Okay, so clearly some something sketchy was going on with the company and its finances.

00:07:30.860 And as of 2021, they went into bankruptcy at the time, basically. So that's what was happening up until

00:07:40.300 2021. We have more recent developments as of 2024. Last year, Premier Daniel Smith visited Alaska

00:07:49.740 and met with the governor. And they both apparently spoke in regards to reviving this project and how

00:07:59.100 essential it would be. Here's a tweet from Premier Daniel Smith again from last year.

00:08:05.420 I'm flying back from Alaska this morning, truly inspired. Despite a challenging landscape and climate,

00:08:11.900 the Alaskan people have worked hard to build an incredible home. It reminds me a lot of Alberta.

00:08:18.460 Now they're very similar. I had the great honor to attend the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference and meet

00:08:25.900 with key stakeholders within government, industry and indigenous communities over the past two days.

00:08:32.940 I want to thank Governor Don Levy, Don Levy, however you pronounce it, and the Alaskan people for their

00:08:40.060 hospitality. We forged new alliances and partnerships on this mission. And I'm excited of what the future holds

00:08:47.980 for Alaska for Alaska and Alberta. A lot friendlier, a much friendlier meeting than she's ever had

00:08:57.660 with British Columbia, our fellow Canadians just west of us. Go figure. So here's an article from the

00:09:06.380 Western Standard giving an update on the situation with this huge project connecting Alberta and Alaska.

00:09:17.180 The title goes, Smith, Alaska Governor Tout Rail Line from Fort Mac at Conference. Alberta Premier

00:09:24.540 Daniel Smith has reflated the idea of a 2,600-kilometer rail line from Fort McMurray to Anchorage, Alaska,

00:09:32.540 with her Alaskan counterpart, Governor Mike Don Levy, or Don Levy. Speaking at an energy conference in the

00:09:40.300 state capitol on the weekend, Smith and, let's call him Don, Smith and Don pitched the idea of reviving the

00:09:48.300 line known as A to A between Delta Junction and Fort Mac via Fort Nelson, British Columbia.

00:09:55.900 In 2020, then President Donald Trump issued a permit granting approval for the rail project,

00:10:02.940 but it never got past the planning stages. In 2021, the company behind the project and the proposal

00:10:08.380 went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy after racking up $212.9 million in debt. At the time of the filing,

00:10:19.500 its only assets were consulting reports and intellectual property. That's the shenanigans that were going

00:10:26.140 on back in 2021. Yikes. And you got the tweet from the Premier about visiting Alaska. In 2021, the Ontario

00:10:35.020 Securities Commission began investigating irregularities in the business dealings between the main

00:10:40.460 financer of the A to A project, Bridging Finance, and A to A's President, Sean McCoshen. The OSC alleged that

00:10:49.260 following the funding of loans to various McCoshen companies, McCoshen funneled a total of 19.5

00:10:56.060 million to Bridging CEO, David Sharp. Yikes. Additionally, the OSC also alleged that millions

00:11:02.380 of dollars pledged for A to A rail also went to McCoshen's personal bank account and to an apparently

00:11:07.980 unrelated company controlled by him. You're not going to tell me that such a massive,

00:11:13.740 hugely significant project was stalled, paused because of two crooks. Really, a project of

00:11:27.340 continental significance being paused because of two allegedly corrupt men. Incredible. As of 2020,

00:11:36.300 the project was estimated to cost 20 billion. Under the proposal, Alberta oil would have been shipped

00:11:42.940 by rail to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Terminal for export through Valdez on the coast. Port of Valdez,

00:11:51.020 that is, just south of Anchorage. The idea has been floated in various incarnations since at least

00:11:58.620 1898. Incredible. This time, however, the link was seen as an alternative to the cancelled Northern

00:12:06.220 Gateway Pipeline project to Kitimat, British Columbia, which Premier Danielle Smith is pursuing today, by the

00:12:13.500 way. And the Premier of British Columbia is making it impossible for her to do. So you have a massive

00:12:21.820 project of epic proportions, something that would absolutely change the landscape for Canada's north,

00:12:29.660 as well as the state of Alaska, which unfortunately at this time is not connected to the rest of North

00:12:35.900 America, to the rest of North America's rail connections. This would have made Alberta and Alaska

00:12:41.980 significantly wealthier. And the project was paused, shelved, because two corrupt individuals were at the

00:12:50.860 helm of the project, according to reports. But then, as recently as last year, you have Premier Smith

00:12:58.940 meeting with the governor of Alaska, and the meeting was all positive. Apparently, both the governor and

00:13:07.340 the Premier indicated indicated how important that particular project would be for both of their

00:13:13.260 jurisdictions. I really hope to see a project like that be built. You know how big of a statement it

00:13:20.300 would be that Premier Smith just signs a deal with Trump and the governor of Alaska to build that railway?

00:13:29.580 I mean, unfortunately, at the end of the day, it still depends on Canada, because Alberta is not connected

00:13:37.900 to Alaska. It would have to go through Northern BC, or at the very least go up to the Northwest

00:13:44.140 territories, then get into the Yukon, and then get into Alaska. Unfortunately for Alberta, it doesn't have

00:13:53.100 direct access to the state of Alaska. It does have access to Montana, to the south, but it's not connected

00:14:00.780 to Alaska. Incredible, though, to think that it's a lot easier to negotiate with American governors than

00:14:09.580 it is to negotiate with fellow Canadian premiers. So Alberta independence is taking off. That's why most

00:14:17.500 Albertans have given up on Canada. Hey, if you've made it this far, thank you so much for watching.

00:14:22.940 If you'd like to be notified every time a new video is published, hit the subscribe button and

00:14:27.260 activate the notifications bell. It's completely free and it helps our channel grow. A heartfelt thank

00:14:32.780 you to all our channel members. I really appreciate your support. See you all in the next one. Peace.

00:14:47.500 my

00:15:07.500 me

00:15:07.900 my

00:15:08.420 my

00:15:10.060 my

00:15:11.420 my

00:15:11.440 my

00:15:11.900 my

00:15:13.460 my

00:15:14.300 my

00:15:14.500 my

PJ The Belt - November 14, 2025

The Alberta & Alaska MERGER They Tried To Keep SECRET!

Episode Stats

People

Summary

Transcript