Premier David Eby said he would rather see Canada build more oil refineries than a new pipeline to British Columbia’s northwest coast.
His comments came after Alberta Premier Danielle said the recent U.S. actions in oil-rich Venezuela should spur Canada to speed up pipeline development.
Following the U.S. capture and removal of Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has pledged to reopen Venezuela to U.S. oil companies, potentially weakening U.S. reliance on Canadian oil.
“Recent events surrounding Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro emphasize the importance that we expedite the development of pipelines to diversify our oil export markets, including a new Indigenous co-owned bitumen pipeline to BC’s northwest coast to reach Asian markets,” said Smith in a statement Monday on social media.
Eby said Tuesday he’s not sorry to see Maduro removed as leader of Venezuela, calling him “tyrannical” and “a bad guy.” But he expressed concern about the U.S. actions.
“I, like many Canadians, I’m sure, find it deeply unsettling to have Donald Trump deciding unilaterally for regime change in different countries and saber rattling towards Greenland and Mexico,” he said.
Eby said the actions highlight the need for Canada to distance its economy from the U.S., but he maintained that building a new pipeline is not the way to do that.
He reiterated that no private proponent has stepped forward to back the project, and insisted that any new pipeline must not be publicly funded.
“If we’ve got tens of billions of dollars to spend, I think we should spend it on a refinery and we should develop oil products for Canadians and for export instead of being reliant on American and Chinese refineries to do it for us,” said Eby.
He also said Canada should work on expanding the capacity of the existing publicly-owned Trans Mountain pipeline.
Alberta is expected to submit an application to the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) to fast-track a pipeline by next July. A memorandum of understanding signed between Ottawa and Alberta in November stipulates any new pipeline would need to be privately-funded.
The Canada Energy Regulator says Canada’s 17 oil refineries had a capacity of about 1.93 million barrels per day, as of 2024. B.C.’s two refineries made up just four per cent of that capacity.
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