Canada fast-tracking oil pipeline designed to diversify economy away from US

Canada will fast track the approval process for a new proposed crude oil export pipeline to its west coast that could generate over C$20 billion (US$14 billion) a year in GDP, Prime Minister ‌Mark Carney said on Thursday.

The pipeline, which was announced in July, is a crucial part of Carney’s bid to diversify the economy away from the United States and help lessen the effect of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Carney said Ottawa would officially list the Pacific Link pipeline as a project of national interest, which enables it to proceed through a single federal regulatory review process. He said Ottawa aimed to complete the process by September 1, ⁠2027.

“A pipeline to the west coast is part of our mission to transform our economy, to double our non-US exports ‌over the next decade … [and] to unlock our full potential as a global energy superpower,” he told reporters in Fort McMurray, hub of Alberta’s oil sands industry.