As the chattering classes go berserk over Mark Carney approving the possible approval of an approval process for a pipeline, Peter Menzies warns of “That sad, skeptical moment when you realize the sluggish pace of Canada’s fast lane”. Canada’s punditocracy has a singular tendency to mistake high winds for solid substance. As Menzies wrote, “Most reports were reasonably clear that this designation puts the proposal on a regulatory fast-track – which could prove to speed things up – but it was left to a Hansard Files Substack to put the freshly named Pacific Link project fully in context.” And that context is that there is no project and no plan for one, and not really even a plan to plan for a plan. But let some gravely-voiced squinching guy in a suit say “fast-track” and the subsidized press are on a fast-track to praising Carney for his decisive action.
The Canadian government’s tendency to treat words as deeds is not unique. But it is certainly well-developed. Thus when you read “Atlantic Canadian companies tap into Europe’s growing wind energy market” you might well think someone had sold somebody something. But no. It’s just more wind of the oratorical sort:
“Atlantic Canada has long been an exporter of energy products. As the world shifts toward renewable sources, demand is growing not only for clean power, but also for the expertise behind it. From wind and marine energy to the technologies that support them, the region’s companies are developing innovative products and services for both domestic projects and export markets around the world. Today, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, announced that nine Atlantic Canadian companies and energy sector organizations are taking part in WindEnergy Hamburg 2026. Participants include Waterford Energy Services Inc., which supports the construction, operation and maintenance of energy projects, and Eskasoni First Nation, a partner in the Truro Heights Community Wind Project.”
A junket to a conference. And what will happen there? More wind, of course, again rhetorical:
“Throughout the event, participating companies will connect with European buyers, suppliers, and investors, build new relationships, identify potential customers and partners, and pursue new commercial opportunities. They will also showcase their products and services to key decision-makers, raising Atlantic Canada’s profile in the European renewable energy sector. This comes as Atlantic Canada positions itself to play a larger role in the wind energy sector, with growing momentum in offshore wind development and clean energy exports driving new opportunities for companies across the entire supply chain. The Atlantic Energy Strategy, which has been referred to the Major Projects Office (MPO), is expected to drive demand for expertise in marine operations, engineering, environmental services, and project delivery across the region. By building relationships with global industry leaders and gaining insight into established European markets, Atlantic Canadian companies can strengthen their ability to compete for work both abroad and here at home.”
There’s that Major Projects Office again, tasked with saying a thing is good and should get a faster approval process we didn’t create yet, while basically failing to get anything from inbox to pseudo-outbox.
Incidentally, in the middle of all this it emerged that the Prime Minister’s smug assertion that we would suddenly not just meet our long-neglected NATO pledge of spending 2% of GDP on defence, but blast past it at scale and speed not seen in generations to 5%, was just revealed as utterly hollow by a Parliamentary Budget Office report. And the Parliamentary Budget Officer commented dryly that:
“I think it’s fair to say that the government’s plans in the next five years or over the next 10 years are still in formation. I think that it is also fair to say that there remain numerous ... kind of elements of that plan to be elaborated and set forth over this five-year period, let alone the 10-year period.”
In reporting this farce the National Post added:
“The Carney government has been criticized for not showing its work on its defence spending plans. Budget 2025 and the spring economic update from 2026 lacked any breakdown of its defence spending projections. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters more details will come on his government’s defence spending plans, although he provided no timeline.”
Indeed. Because it’s how they roll… their tongues.
They also leaped into committee, turning their new Defence Investment Agency “into a Crown corporation so that it will have a permanent structure and a clearer mandate and reporting path” because nothing creates rapid efficient decision-making like a new unaccountable bureaucratic entity:
“Government officials said Tuesday that the new Crown corporation will mean that it will be easier to recruit experts and structure contracts so that they’re more like private sector purchases and offer taxpayers better value.”
As for actually procuring gear, well:
“Officials emphasized the importance of buying Canadian and helping the domestic defence industry gaining greater access to capital…. the move will also mean the creation of a new cabinet post, the associate minister of national defence for procurement. The organization would also have its own board of directors, chief executive, employees and annual plan.”
Priorities, priorities, rhetoric, rhetoric.
So to return to the pipeline, as Menzies explained, the guy behind that Substack “who appears to spend his days doing what Parliamentary reporters should be doing – reading the fine print that fuels the Machinery of Government (MOG)” reposted someone else posting the entire text of the Prime Minister’s announcement in Fort McMurray (carefully chosen for maximum PR value due to its location in Alberta, its pivotal role in supporting our oil and gas industry, and its ghastly 2016 fire which was proof positive of man-made climate change until it turned out to be one of those things that happens periodically not the first in an endless series). And then that author “added valuable context”, specifically:
“I pulled the Canada Gazette notice to check what listing a pipeline under the Building Canada Act actually triggers. Adding Pacific Link to Schedule 1 (the statutory register of national-interest projects) is not an approval or a construction permit. Under subsection 5(1.1), listing only initiates an internal review by the Major Projects Office to draft project conditions, which the government confirms will take until September 1, 2027. As I tracked at Hansard Files (https://www.hansardfiles.ca/p/west-coast-oil-pipeline-route), the proposal still lacks an engineered route and cost structure. The announcement does not clear shovels; it starts a 12-month regulatory clock.”
It’s curious that during the 2025 election Carney promised to build “at a speed and scale not seen in generations”, and now he and his ministers applaud themselves for doing same having skipped over the messy bit where you actually do it.
For instance one recent press release using the phrase in self-congratulatory fashion actually referred to “investing” in the modernizing of an existing curling rink in Bathurst, New Brunswick, including insulating “its five-sheet curling facility” and if you believe nobody in this country has renovated a curling rink in less than, say, five years since World War II you too could serve in Carney’s cabinet or PR office. Even if this one was done in consultation with Indigenous partners and will help “ensure the facility can continue serving the community in a changing climate.” Take that, Alaska Highway. Or whatever their benchmark is.
This time the plan is somehow to draft tentative project conditions within a year. And many observers who ought to know better treat the making of the announcement as the same as the deed being done. Even Juno News, typically skeptical of big government, Carney’s Liberal Party and central Canadian clichés, gushed:
“West Coast Oil Pipeline officially fast-tracked as project gets national interest status/ Project officials say the Pacific Link pipeline could add up to $30 billion annually to Canada’s economy.”
Yeah. Unless it doesn’t. And when? Well um see:
“Listing Pacific Link under the Building Canada Act shifts Ottawa from considering whether the pipeline should proceed to an accelerated federal review focused on the conditions under which it can be built. ‘Today we’re ready to move forward for Albertans, for Canadians,’ Carney said Thursday in Fort McMurray after consultations with more than 130 Indigenous communities.”
We might add that in Canada, by deliberate government policy, even if you consult with more than 130 Indigenous communities (or even with the people in them, for those who dislike collectivism and identity politics) it just takes one to bring everything to a screeching halt. And yes, the latest greatest thing in identity politics is white socialists using aboriginals to paralyze development including the kind desperately needed in remote aboriginal communities.
In consequence of which the investment climate here is so bad, especially for energy projects involving any significant non-urban land, that the pipeline project in question won’t be built by the private sector and will instead rely almost entirely on government funding, private investors being too smart and far-sighted to fall for such things, while politicians who’ve spent a career asserting that governments are wise and visionary and capitalists short-sighted and dim rush in. Except for the rushing bit.
So it’s all fine and good that:
“The proposed pipeline would carry more than one million barrels of oil per day from Alberta to B.C.’s south coast, largely following the existing Trans Mountain corridor.”
But it won’t until it’s built. Which at the languid pace at which our government builds things rapidly means:
“Ottawa aims to finalize the project’s conditions by September 1, 2027, clearing the way for construction, with the pipeline targeted to begin operating in 2032-33.”
There’s that sluggish pace again. Since it appears currently to be 2026, it means the government is planning to take longer to build one pipeline than it took to win either World War. Talk about speeds not seen in generations.
Also, Juno said:
“Ottawa estimates the project will cost between $35.2 billion and $43.7 billion, including contingencies.”
And of course their record on estimating costs is even more risible than on estimating timelines. Naturally we’ll all get rich, though:
“Ottawa projects the pipeline could generate more than $20 billion in annual GDP and create up to 140,000 jobs. Federal officials estimate broader benefits from higher oil prices could push the economic impact to as much as $30 billion annually.”
Could. Unless it doesn’t. For instance because not one major oil pipeline company was willing to take it on. Meanwhile Alberta’s allegedly conservative/libertarian premier Danielle Smith amplifies the Liberal propaganda:
“For Smith, Thursday’s announcement represents another major step toward construction. ‘Today sends a clear message,’ she said. ‘Canada is ready to build.’”
No. Canada is ready to bloviate and hold committee meetings to draft an agenda for a protocol to create conditions for a tentative framework for a memorandum on devising a structure for reviewing the writing non-binding project conditions.
Honestly John, Canada is doomed, it has been a ward of the American economy for many decades and the American sugar daddy is looking for a younger and sexier partner....Venezuela for example! Already, Albertan oil is being replaced by millions of tons of Venezuelan oil, also heavy crude and America owns a huge percentage of the refineries that can refine heavy crude so if Venezuela replaces Alberta there is no place to go with that oil. As to LNG, the United States is the 10,000 pound gorilla of LNG not only because we have the largest methane reserves on the planet, but also because we are the only safe and reliable supplier of LNG with the other 2 biggies being Bahrain and Russia. When you consider the drivel coming out of Ottawa, I think that convincing global customers that Canada is a reliable supplier will be harder than building a pipeline!