Overview
- Prime Minister Mark Carney designated the project as national interest on Thursday, Oct. 1, placing the proposed 1,250‑kilometre Pacific Link under the Building Canada Act and starting a one‑year Major Projects Office process to write binding conditions by Sept. 1, 2027.
- Ownership is proposed to be split roughly 45% federal, 45% Alberta and 10% Pembina during construction, with Indigenous communities offered a minimum 10% equity stake to be financed through federal and provincial loan guarantees.
- Ottawa and Alberta will fund about C$4 billion of initial engineering, consultation and studies, but private financing, producer shipper commitments and Pembina’s final construction investment remain unresolved.
- The government tied Pacific Link to its Pathways carbon‑capture project as a prerequisite, and it acknowledged that many consulted Indigenous communities were not ready to support listing the project while environmental groups warned of major ecological risks and likely court challenges.
- Officials project the pipeline could add up to 1 million barrels per day to exports, create as many as 140,000 peak jobs and boost annual GDP by more than C$20 billion, and the listing is the first test of the Building Canada Act that replaces multiple permits with a single binding‑conditions process.