Canada has been selling 94% of our oil to the U.S. at below world market prices for decades.
“The US buys Canadian oil at a discount and exports at full price, which currently yields a US$19 billion annual windfall,” the CD Howe Institute reported earlier this year.
“The 4.4 million barrels per day imports from Canada permit the US to export a corresponding 4.4 million barrels per day of light oil (at) the benchmark WTI price of US$74 per barrel. This results in annual exports from the US of US$119 billion. These light crude oil exports to countries in Europe and elsewhere help the US reduce its trade deficits with those countries, and maybe even to achieve a trade surplus.”
Why?
“Canada’s barrels are also largely landlocked, with most production being far from North America’s key transport hubs and refineries, and its lower price reflects higher transportation costs and Western Canada’s limited access to global markets,” the Financial Post explained.
Breaking the U.S. monopoly for our petroleum exports has long been a Canadian goal.
Since 1953, the Trans Mountain pipeline, almost 1,500 Kilometres from Edmonton to Burnaby, has been carrying some Canadian oil to Asian markets … expanded from 300,000 barrels a day to 890,000 barrels a day in May 2024.
Literally, a drop in the potential bucket!
Now, it’s not just a goal: it’s a KEY to breaking Canada’s economic reliance/subservience to the U.S. in the face of President Donald Trump’s economic war against Canada!
The country and the people have never been more united, more determined to Buy Canadian and expand our exports to new markets.
So much so that Manitoba, Ontario and even Quebec, have now bought into the idea … and greater potential economic independence … of pipelines and port facilities that will allow Canadian oil and gas reach European markets!
But not BC.
Premier David Eby at first explained there was no proposal on the table for a new northern oil pipeline to increase exports to Asia: what major company or consortium would be stupid enough to waste hundreds of millions of dollars to scope out, prepare and propose such a project, in light of BC’s open animosity to the idea and Canada’s current emissions cap and ban on north coast tanker traffic?
Premier Danielle Smith … clearly anxious to get discussions/changes going again … last week announced Alberta would be committing $14 million to initiating a plan for a pipeline to the northern BC coast.
““What stands before us right now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock our wealth and resources and become a world-leading energy superpower,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary.
The response from Eby, and BC’s Coastal First Nations, was immediate and negative.
““The problem that we have is Smith continues to advance a project that is taxpayer-funded, has no private sector proponent, is not a real project and is incredibly alarming to British Columbians, especially First Nations along the coast,” Eby said.
“As the Rights and Title holders of B.C.’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, we must inform Premier Smith once again that there is no support from Coastal First Nations for a pipeline and oil tankers project in our coastal waters,” said Marilyn Slett, president of Coastal First Nations and elected Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation.
How “provincial”, how parochial, how selfish … and how sweet their sounds must be to Donald Trump and his friends/supporters in the US oil industry!
The message from Eby, the BC NDP government and the Coastal First Nations is clear: We’ll make sure Alberta cannot expand oil exports to Asia … so they’ll be forced to continue selling it at a discount, to US corporations that can then export it at world market prices!!
So much for turning Canada into an oil-based resource-based economic Superpower!
In my view, given Canada’s current economic strangulation … with hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs in jeopardy or already lost … the federal government MUST roll over BC’s and Coastal First Nations’ obstructionism.
And, legally, the federal government has the right to do that!
Section 92 (10) of the 1867 Constitution Act granted the federal government exclusive authority over inter-provincial infrastructure … including pipelines, as reaffirmed in cases before the BC Court of Appeal and the Canadian Supreme Court.
“These projects are of such enormous value … nation-building projects to reduce our dependence on the United States … there are no projects that can produce the kind of wealth, export value, job creation and tax revenue as these oil sands projects,” former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney noted on CBC last week.
Kenney estimated a new pipeline could bring Canada $30 Billion dollars a year in revenues … greater than total revenues from lumber sales.
Meanwhile, BC is in a mess!
The 2025-26 Budget deficit is projected at $11.6 Billion and expected to increase to $12.6 Billion in 2027; the debt reaching $134 Billion in 2025 … UP more than 50% in two years.
Horrible!
And BC taxpayers are paying the price: the province’s Credit Rating was recently dropped by Fitch to an AA+, with a “negative” outlook, while S&P rated BC at A+, also with a “negative” outlook. A lower rating raises debt interest costs.
And how’s this: BC was the ONLY province to LOSE population this Spring; it now also has the lowest birthrate in Canada; and, just last week, Vancouver dropped to 36 on the Global Power list of 48 major cities … down from 20th in 2015.
(I guess someone from the “List” took a stroll down Granville Street downtown and saw what NDP policies/ideology have done there!)
Maybe that’s why BC is having trouble recruiting enough doctors to keep even Hospital Emergency Departments open?
Time to stop the bleeding.
The country cannot let BC NDP hard-line ideologues and Coastal First Nations militants keep Canada’s economy dependent and at the mercy of Donald Trump and the United States.
Time to remove the impediments blocking a new oil pipeline and other resource exports through BC to the world!
Harv Oberfeld
🇨🇦🇨🇦Check the labels! BUY CANADIAN!🇨🇦🇨🇦
(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” from FREE First Alerts to new postings on this BC-based Blog.)
It could be a useful negotiation tactic for BC to be tough at first, to gain favours from Ottawa, the federal government generally being quite cheap with British Columbia. There are few opportunities to gain federal generosity, so we might be wise to take the opportunity when it arises.
If this pipeline gets built, all of that federal generosity might well go to just the First Nations. If we negotiate a bit now, the rest of the population might get some benefits as well.
How about refining oil before exporting as value added?
(Response: that would be a great idea… Except good luck finding a city that wants a huge pullrefinery in their midst. Ho)
Maybe this article will help. It details some of the efforts by First Nations leaders and communities to get pipelines built in BC. Key phrase for me because we too often seem to be focused on the negative
“pro-development Indigenous leaders rarely get the airtime of their anti-energy activist counterparts.”
The emphasis shouldn’t be telling Eby not to cave to the “militants” but encouraging him to work with the First Nations people who want these projects.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/geoff-russ-recognizing-first-nations-desire-economic-prosperity-is-what-reconciliation-looks-like?itm_source=index
(Response: Some militants have such a sense of self-importance, trying to reason with them (without bribing them outright) it just does not work. The good news is that more and more first nations, really progressive leaders and band members are realizing these days that the secret to economic independence and self-reliance lies in resource development projects. Of course, there will always be those who prefer to just sit on their rear ends and demand the rest of us to take care of them. I just wish the EB government would encourage the first group instead of offering support so often to the second! As for those who think they can block major projects through blackmail or violence, we have laws that can take care of them… Regardless of ethnicity or political clout. Ho
Eby and his Special Interests and Activists Shakedown Party, once upon a time the real NDP, has caved a distanced the majority in the back and by signing off on the processing for parallel partnership First Nations governance. This politically selfish a.. completely sold the voters. We vote for one main government. Not two, not three. One !! This disrespectful fool of the voters democratic processes and the law needs to be kicked out and even put into extinction level like the Federal NDP just to learn the hard way. This two tier parallel governing has to stop. I as a voter feel completely disrespected by Eby and his idiots. Kick them out.
(Response: I have no objection to the first nations being consulted about various major projects that can affect their traditional lands and even their way of life. But then again, I think government should contact and consult with every community that would be so majorly affected or impacted by projects. However, I think the NDP and the federal liberals have gone too far and practically giving the first nations veto powers… in reality, if not legally yet… over projects. They can object, they can suggest changes, but they should not be allowed to stand in the way of major national projects that the government wants to approve and the majority of the people of Canada have given them the votes to proceed. Ho)
More discount oil to US not less. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-trump-keystone-revival-1.7653949 Alberta the 51st state?? No more transfer payments to Quebec and rest of Canada. Canadian east west movement of goods would have to cross the new boarder and at what cost?
(Response: if there is one thing that the aggression of Trump and the US administration has taught us it’s that no province should or would want to go it alone. We are small enough in comparison to the US economy already: there is strength in our unity, not separation. As for Trump‘s interest in resurrecting the Keystone XL pipeline, I think that could be part of an overall energy deal with the US that is being worked on behind the scenes. And I suspect if we guarantee the Americans, a certain increased volume of oil and electricity, that could be the key to lifting some of the tariffs on steel and aluminum. However, that should not stop Canada from pushing ahead with a new pipeline to the West Coast to diversify our market potential beyond the US. Ho)
Alberta has always been pro USA.
I lived there 45 years ago and it was like a 51st state then.
Not hard to understand after you look at the way Ottawa has treated the West for decades.
We are an afterthought, an annoyance, tolerated like fussy children in church.
While I wouldn’t like to see Canada split up on Separatist lines….
It wouldnt surprise me.
And with Trump goading these short sighted fools along…
Anything is possible.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba ( in that order).
How long would the rest of the provinces last?
Weeks? months?
Trying to rewrite trade negotiations with foreign countries? New Laws, Constitutions, on and on and on.
We can’t even build a sewage treatment plant or a bloody highway to Hope in less than 20 years.
Nah
After the first Provinces are absorbed by the USA…..
After that…… watch for the rush to the exit.
It won’t start in Quebec…
It’ll end there.
Finally on it’s own….a French Nation in a sea of Anglo ( no more millions spent on bilingual appeasement) states….Hurray! You’ve “won”…
Think it won’t happen?
NEVER underestimate the short sighted stupidity of the general voting public.
We’re not that far separated from cheering gladiators fighting to the death… it’s called MMA now and its pay per view.
(Response: In a way, I think the Mad Hatter may be the best thing that’s happened for Canadian unity in a generation! The provinces are starting to notice how vulnerable each has been to the American pressures, angers, discrimination, and now a trade war. Even Quebec has a new sense of nationalism and about Canada standing together to resist the American threat. If any province separated from Canada, and then of course faced a reaction (boycott) from the rest, the Americans would pick them off at their weakest point, offering them dimes on their dollars of exports or making them a “join us” offer they would find difficulty in refusing! Ho)
You hit it right on … and what I would add has already been said with everyone on this blog to date …
(Response: Thanks. Eby seems to realize most British Columbians, like most Canadians, want to see a new pipeline to free up Canadian oil exports to the world, not just the US. Who would’ve thought we’d ever see an NDP BC government trying to protect US corporations’ discounted monopoly over our oil resource! Maybe that’s why he almost got hysterical in trying to defend his old tired NDP anti-oil ideological bias. Ho)
Hi Harvey, B.C. and Canada have many problems that can be laid at the feet of our feckless politicians, and it doesn’t look good for a rosy future with the paragons of virtue signalling, we have looking after the province and the country today.
I for one, and I hope you agree, think Canada and B.C. should be a country and a province that are the envy of the whole world. Instead we have, both a country and province being held back by the very people who should be leading a dynamic and prosperous entity at the forefront of the world.
Eby, I am afraid is a lost cause, and I don’t see Carney being the world-beater, some folks were fooled into believing he was.
The FN, are a whole different kettle of fish. I am stll waiting for them to get serious about being responsible citizens, and start looking after themselves. Which, by the way some bands have done, and done very well. They can’t just continuously, hold out their hands for the Feds to fill, with more and more billions of dollars, paid by ordinary citizens, don’t ya know!
I want to see Canada and B.C. succeed, because our survival depends on it!
(Response: I was glued to the TV today and watched Carney in Washington (not sure why, I’m supposed to be retired!) But I was quite impressed with the way he handled himself in the presence of the Mad Hatter. Carney seems to be quite competent, and I don’t think he’ll allow Eby or the Coastal First Nations to block Canada’s oil from getting to the Asian market. Canada does have the ability to become a resource superpower, if we unleash our potential! And these days it is possible to do that, while still protecting the environment. Eby has to make up his mind: either we remain chained to the US or we allow our goods to get to markets elsewhere! His excuse that there is no firm proposal yet is just a red herring: there will never be a billion dollar private project proposed until the federal government lifts the ban on West Coast tankers, lifts the emissions cap, bribes the Coastal First Nations and brings in board (or uses federal legal powers) to roll over the B.C. NDP’s ideological extremists. When we take off all the prohibitions , watch the proposals roll in! Ho)
The reality that many Canadian governance choices in the past decade have enabled and emboldened a predatory clown like Trump is absolute!
The pursuit of a small percentage of voters has hamstrung the economy and opened up many opportunities for foreign actors to take economic advantage, never heard a peep from our subsidized media on the potential harm done by such policies, let alone the potential advantages it creates for other Nations, why?
In a time of “message control”, why has no one pointed out the obvious advantages these poorly conceived concepts offer to adversarially governed nations, US, China, Russia, all have profited from our recent addiction to resource extraction curtailment. Face it, if we do not supply the commodity, then others with far less rigorous approval & risk mitigation will supply said commodity! The environment suffers and a couple of young impressionable voters are duped into voting for curtailment, this is the reality of Canadian politics today!
Simple concepts like “supply & demand”, “market commodities”, and of course the ever present and oft underrated, “law of unintended consequences”, all seem beyond the intellect of many today, ignorance should not be bliss, it should cause a sober second look!
Environmental law in Canada has enabled many foreign nations in many instances, the only missing piece is ownership of the downstream “cause & effect”, required after such
short sighted choices!
(Response: Trump’s aggression against Canadian industries/companies has left Canada only two choices: accept shutdowns, loss of jobs, a badly diminished economy; or, expanded world markets for our goods, crops, services and resources. Canada certainly can’t do the latter if we are blocked by enemies within, who do everything they can to limit/block our exports to the world that require transit through their provinces. Luckily, the federal government has the legal right/power to override such US-friendly obstacles within … but whether Carney has the determination to exercise it remains to be seen. Ho)
Carney just has to have the balls to stop Eby and his Shakedown Party. He does legally have the power. Just needs the knackers to match that.
(Response: one of the problems that Carney faces is that the liberals hold 20 seats in BC and only two in Alberta. That makes taking a stand much more difficult here, but I do believe that at some point Carney and the Liberal federal government are going to have to exercise their legal authority and help get Alberta‘s oil to world markets… Not for the sake of Alberta, but for the sake of Canada. Ho)
David Eby is a radical leftist, who only cares about pleasing his extremist supporters and wealthy donors. In my opinion, he’s the worst premier in Canada. He’s a friend of the CCP, a man who knows how to overspend, favour criminals and drug addicts and blame everyone but himself for his incompetence. Only those on the left can think he’s better than John Rustad. He definitely isn’t.
(Response: It’s really amazing to think Eby inherited a $3 Billion surplus from John Horgan, who piloted BC through much of the Covid crisis, and Eby has parlayed that into an $11.6 Billion deficit … predicted to get even worse next year. And yet, what do British Columbians have to show for it: a worse housing crisis; worse homelessness, worse druggie, street safety problems, worse Hospital Emergency closures, worse credit rating … and now, an almost incredible blunder … taking a stand on a new Canadian West Coast oil pipeline (while the country’s economy is in crisis) that must be music to the ears of Donald Trump and US oil corporate bosses! Ho)
I remember when John Horgan was trying to disrupt construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Don Braid of the Calgary Herald spoke to former BC Premier Dan Miller. Miller said at the time that BC’s opposition could lead to retaliation by Alberta and that Alberta has the ability to inflict serious harm BC’s economy. My suspicion is that Danielle Smith and her advisors have already thought what that planned retaliation will be.
David Eby is also ignoring the income and other tax revenue that any pipelines will generate (if a pipeline is located within a province, then the province can charge income tax on the revenue the pipeline generates). This tax revenue that will help to reduce BC’s deficit.
He is also hypocritical when Alaska oil is being transported by ship, if not within Canadian coastal waters, then extremely close to it. But yet he opposes Alberta oil being transported.
His opposition is further creating more alienation within Alberta and Saskatchewan.
(Response: The BC NDP has a history of initially opposing or pooh-poohing major projects (Site C, pipeline building, expansions ) … and then celebrating them after they get built and start producing huge benefits and revenues.Getting Alberta oil to markets other than the US is now critically important… and Canada MUST succeed in that … even if NDP ideologues and First Nations militants prefer to sell us out! Ho)
It could be stated, if I may, Eby and the NDP government alone are the ones who sold us out to the First Nations militancy. These are of course a minority along with other various non-First Nations activist and shakedown groups. Lots of white activist people are involved also in various groups for various agendas. But in reality Eby is the real ring leader and prime mover in the purposefully coordinated and planned government policy making of getting the documents and legislation all done and signed before the next election that sells out the major majority of British Columbians. Its a shakedown for the land, billions more of guaraunteed revenue and prevention of much needed business from marketing our abundant product for not just British Columbians but for all Canada. I’ve said it before and I know some may not like it for some reasons because maybe just affects their entertainment time but the signed and sealed contract that gives away more of the peoples Casino revenues for 25 years on top of what they are getting. Its all unprecented The BCLC has the disrespectful nerve to say we are visitors in this land of BC. Sorry, but no. Its easy for anyone to see why government has this kind of messaging to the general public. I say to people stop giving the government run sleazy Eby government run scam artists casinos your hard earned money to only be handed over in bigger bags to the shakedown scam artists with no qeustions asked. These certain First Nations groups are actually only doing what they naturally would do and I ctually kind of can’t really blame them to get what they can for their people. I would probably do the same or be on board with it. We dont really know unless we are in their shoes. Its only Eby being the cause and effect, but all this craziness doesnt need to be like this except its all being done and pursued by this obsessed ideologue NDP and its arrogant assinine leader. If we really look at it in its true light, it’s the majority of white boys and girls of government causing all the trouble. Remember the idiots of white privilege messaging. Their all the same kind of naive delusional white dummies and ideologues. But in the end First Nations are only the recipients of all the Eby created giveaways and policies and will take advantage of it and take part in whatever capacity they can and get what they can. Can’t really blame them I suppose. We’re not walking their walk or even in their shoes.
(Response: I do not blame first Nations leaders for trying to get as much out of the government as they can… I blame the government for being so willingly scammed in some cases for hundreds of millions of dollars (any evidence of deliberately murdered children buried secretly anywhere yet? or making all kinds of magnanimous gestures, apologies and promises without realizing the problems they are exposing everyone else to by the concessions they are making. Ho )
The problem with Eby is that he does not lead the NDP provincially, rather a Vancouver centric Vision Vancouver(Provincial) party, which is all about flipping properties and creating profits for land speculators and developers.
The NDP is supported by union workers, especially the BCGEU and by the West side armchair socialists, who do not give a damn about the province.
This has created the “Hurtlands” and his incompetence is seeing much needed Emergency Care unavailable to people throughout the province including metro Vancouver.
Eby and the NDP’s catering to the wealthy has almost bankrupted the province and this includes now over $16 billion (full program) to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km. (I just got news from back east that this cost is rising and may top $20 billion when all is said and done!)
Eby’s lacklustre performance is ignored by the media while tongue’s wag at Rustad’s Mini-MAGA lot pretending to be Conservatives, implodes.
Eby will kow-tow to what the West Side armchair socialist want and the first nations, well they are transactional and they will get on board if one meets their price.
As the NDP blunders on, squandering money and basically destroying the province, with their lack of innovation, lack of foresight, lack of business acumen.
As the late Rafe Mair often quoted: “you don’t have to be 10 to be successful in politics, rather you can be 4 if your opponent is a 2”. In BC, Eby is a 1 and Rustad a 0 – gawd help us all.
(Response: Eby speaks out very strongly about the punishing US tariffs that hurt BC …but then hands Trump and his corporate backers a HUGE gift … by clearly showing his biases against a new oil pipeline to the Coast that would BREAK the US discounted monopoly market for Canadian oil. Let’s keep it real: Eby/NDP are being US patsies by working hard to keep Canadian oil landlocked! Ho)