Province working with feds on carbon capture, pricing plans, Smith says

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on March 19, 2026.

newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com

Premier Danielle Smith says her government is making progress with federal officials on reaching deals pertaining to carbon capture and carbon pricing as required by the Alberta-Ottawa MOU.

In exchange for the suspension of Clean Energy Regulations in Alberta, the MOU requires Alberta to commit to a new carbon pricing agreement by Apr. 1.

The MOU also requires Alberta to work with Pathways partner companies to develop and enter into an MOU committing the province to the multi-phased carbon capture project by that date.

With less than two weeks remaining, Smith says both parties are still working toward meeting that deadline.

“It might take a little bit longer on the particulars around the agreement with Pathways, but there were five different agreements we were working towards getting consensus on,” said Smith at an unrelated press conference Wednesday.

One of the five agreements pertained to the relocation of major projects approvals to a provincial agency, which the UCP government announced Mar. 6.

Smith says details related to the other agreements are forthcoming in the next few days.

“I don’t think it’s in anybody’s interest to drag this along, because the sooner everybody knows how the table is set and the rules of the game, the sooner we can get on to submitting our proposal and hopefully getting an approval by the Major Projects Office to start proceeding by the end of the year,” she said.

A private-sector proponent for the project has yet to come forward.

A Wednesday report published jointly by ATB Financial and Studio Energy found an addition of 1.5 million barrels per day of new oil pipeline export capacity would be a substantial boon to the Canadian economy.

Several pipelines in the province are being evaluated for prospects for expansion. The analysis assumes those expansions advance, and the new pipeline outlined in the MOU goes forward.

The report found these additions would add more than $30 billion to the country’s GDP over the next 10 years and create more than 110,000 jobs.

Smith said the findings were in line with her expectations.

“The numbers I often use is that if we had built Keystone XL and Energy East and Northern Gateway, we’d have 2.5 million barrels per day of additional production today, which would be generating about $55 billion worth of additional GDP, of which about 40 per cent goes to various levels of government,” she said.

She said the report highlights the need for additional pipeline infrastructure.

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