Overview
- The House voted 196–139 to reject a Conservative motion urging support for a new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast and an ‘appropriate’ change to the federal Oil Tanker Moratorium Act.
- Liberals, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP opposed the motion, with Energy Minister Tim Hodgson calling it a cheap political stunt, while Conservatives sought a recorded vote to put MPs on the record.
- Conservatives tried to win votes by amending their motion to add MOU language on carbon capture, Indigenous consultation and engagement with B.C., but the government still rejected it.
- Coastal First Nations, including Gitga’at leaders who met Alberta’s Indigenous relations minister, reiterated opposition to weakening the tanker ban and highlighted the risks of unrecoverable bitumen spills.
- The pipeline remains hypothetical with no private proponent and significant regulatory and consent hurdles, even as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Liberal MPs say they back the Alberta–Ottawa MOU; internal Liberal tensions continue after Steven Guilbeault’s resignation.