NDP’s Nenshi supportive of public cash for Alberta pipeline, wants honesty from Smith

Alberta’s Opposition NDP leader says Premier Danielle Smith’s plan for a new pipeline has his support, but he’s calling on her to be honest about how much taxpayers could be on the hook for it.

Naheed Nenshi also says public financing for the pipeline shouldn’t be a deal-breaker.

“There sometimes is space for public dollars, and the big pipelines that have been built over many years in Canada certainly had public participation in different ways,” Nenshi said Friday.

“What we really need is transparency and honesty from the premier and from the (United Conservative Party) government on precisely what they’re putting in, and if they’re doing it for good economic reasons.”

Smith announced Thursday that her government has submitted to Ottawa a finalized route, with builders on board, for a new bitumen pipeline to the British Columbia coast.

It stems from an energy accord she signed last year with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who walked back several federal environmental laws and, in the hours before Friday’s announcement with Smith, signed a deal with B.C. Premier David Eby that makes a new pipeline more realistic.

Carney said a decision would be made by October on whether the project gets a national interest designation for fast-tracking through federal permitting processes.

The pipeline would run from Bruderheim, Alta., northeast of Edmonton, to a marine terminal in Delta on the southern B.C. coast. It would largely follow the path of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and deliver more than one million barrels per day to be shipped to Asian markets.

The private-sector stake in Smith’s project — held by Pembina Pipeline — is currently pegged at 10 per cent. But the premier said things could change as the project progresses and Indigenous groups sign on.

Alberta’s Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney said in a statement the equity open to Indigenous groups is also 10 per cent. She said details would be announced later.

The remaining interest is shared by the province and Trans Mountain Corp., a federal Crown corporation.

Alberta’s submission package says the estimated cost is between $35.2 billion and $43.7 billion, including contingency costs.

Smith said the amount of public financing for the project remains to be negotiated. But she and Carney were quick to say profits would more than pay for construction.

“This is transformational wealth, an opportunity neither Canada nor Alberta can afford to leave unrealized,” she said Thursday.

The submission says initial construction could begin in fall 2027 and the pipeline could be completed by 2033-34.

It says some initial consultations with First Nations were done, but much of the conversations happened before the province decided on a southern route.

Carney said new consultations would begin immediately.

The B.C. First Nation whose territory covers the area where the pipeline is to end said Friday that it expects those talks to be meaningful.

Tsawwassen First Nation said no discussions have taken place to date, and it has yet to take a position on Alberta’s proposal.

“TFN recognizes that projects of this scale may present both opportunities and risks,” it said in a statement.

“Any potential benefits will be considered alongside a rigorous assessment of environmental, cultural, social and treaty-rights impacts.”

The energy deal signed between Smith and Carney stipulated any new pipeline be privately financed. Nenshi said he took Thursday’s announcement to mean that condition has been abandoned.

“This is not privately financed. It is publicly financed,” he said. “That said, if the business case pencils out, then that’s a good thing.”

Nenshi compared the proposed pipeline to the last Trans Mountain expansion project, or TMX. It finished in 2024, about six years after Ottawa bought the line and the infrastructure. The federal government stepped in to make sure the endeavour wasn’t abandoned after it faced significant public pushback.

The Trans Mountain pipeline’s capacity now sits at 890,000 barrels per day, though another expansion project in the works could boost it to nearly 1.2 million barrels per day.

Nenshi said it’s a shame the public purse was opened for TMX but that the economic benefit has been worthwhile.

“I am a finance professor at heart, so if the math maths, then we’re happy to support that,” Nenshi said of the new pipeline.

Ronald Ewasiuk, mayor of Bruderheim, said the town is cautiously optimistic about the project, pointing to a list of cancelled pipelines in the past.

“When they break ground, then we will be ecstatic and ready for the challenge.”

He said the town, about 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, has seen little growth in the past 20 years but is ready to welcome workers and families should the pipeline become a reality.

Until it is, Ewasiuk said, Bruderheim will be doing business as usual. “The town is not gonna live or die with this project.”

Nenshi said the lack of Indigenous partners backing the proposal is a challenge but not a surprise.

Smith and her high-ranking staffers have been in a war of words with First Nations chiefs for more than a year over talk of Alberta separating from Canada.

The conflict became more tense in recent weeks, as Alberta fights in court over its duty to consult for a potential referendum on separation, and a petition calling for a separation vote that was quashed by a judge.

Smith has called a referendum for Oct. 19, which will ask Albertans whether they want to remain in Canada or to have a second, binding referendum on quitting the country.

First Nations leaders have said Smith’s behaviour on separation amounts to treason, leading one of the premier’s senior advisers to say the chiefs should focus on addressing poverty in their communities. Smith responded by telling the chiefs to “check themselves.”

“The relationship’s got to be pretty broken for you to say something like that,” Nenshi said.

“When we have a new government, that relationship will be a top priority.”

A spokesperson for the UCP caucus, responding to a request for comment to Smith’s office, said the new pipeline would define the future economy of Alberta and Canada.

“Our UCP government is getting the job done, while the NDP have done nothing to support this project.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press