Alberta Pipeline Plan Sparks Fear and Hope Among Canada’s Indigenous Groups – EnergyNow
October 7, 2025
Canadian energy companies have been partnering more frequently with Indigenous communities
Canada holds one the world’s largest reserves of crude in the western oil sands, but the vast majority of its current production flows to one market: the United States. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith plans to advance a proposal for a new pipeline to ferry as many as one million barrels a day to the northern British Columbia coast, where it would be loaded onto tankers. That would be enough to more than double Canada’s oil-export capacity to Asia, lessening its dependence on the U.S.
Smith wants to clear a legal pathway, then draw in private investors to build and own the project — and part of the equity should go to First Nations communities, she has said. That may be the only way to win their support for the plan.
