Braid: Big projects lock Smith and Carney in a pact neither can break

Isn’t it time to drop the suspicion that Ottawa is just setting Alberta up for another betrayal?

The big-project beat goes on. After more than a week of buzz and announcements, Premier Danielle Smith ended the Stampede blitz with another whopper. That’s Monday’s announcement that the Oilsands Alliance, the group of five key companies, has reached a memorandum of understanding on carbon capture and storage.

There’s long been doubt that this could happen. This is still a preliminary agreement. But all signs point to a future for vastly increased oilsands production, along with carbon capture to reduce per-barrel emissions.

This was Ottawa’s stopper. Prime Minister Mark Carney needed carbon capture to keep peace in his caucus. Ottawa could not be seen to abandon climate action.

For Smith, the MOU was right on hand to impress provincial environment ministers who met in Calgary Tuesday. Carbon capture has already done Canada a lot of good by helping drive ex-environment minister Steven Guilbeault out of Carney’s government. Guilbeault quit as an MP, saying the Liberals were “rewarding negative behaviour” — a final blurt of paternalism from downtown Montreal.

Related Braid: Smith's big Stampede rollouts aimed at cutting separatist support Varcoe: Meta's arrival is part of years-long quest — and future road map — to bring data centres to Alberta The Oilsands Alliance MOU was the cap on a week of big oil and gas announcements, perfectly timed to take advantage of the Stampede spotlight. First came word that a pipeline to B.C.’s south coast would go forward to the Special Projects Office.

Abandoned was the long campaign for a northern line. Smith took criticism for that, but she was being realistic. A northern line would be another Northern Gateway, beset by delays and protests.

Smith now calls the project the “West Coast” pipeline, a comfortably generic handle. Next came “Northern Shield” — the name cooked up for a proposed pipeline from Hardisty to Sarnia refineries in Ontario. This is a great idea.

The project would avoid shipping eastbound oil through Line 5 in the U.S. But the project, boosted by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, is also mythical. It has no history and no backers.

If Northern Shield and the West Coast line somehow opened at the same time, producers probably couldn’t fill them. Still, it’s a worthy longer-term aspiration that showed cross-border support from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Smith even had a nibble of support from new Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette for a pipeline on Quebec territory.

Anti-pipeline frenzy has finally started to fade in the most hostile province. Then came the blockbuster announcement of a $13-billion data centre to be built near Edmonton by Meta Platforms. All in all, it was a week that begs a question.

Isn’t it time to drop the suspicion that Ottawa is just setting Alberta up for another betrayal? It takes getting used to, this friendly, collaborative relationship with federal Liberals. Albertans are so conditioned to hostility after the long Justin Trudeau era that it’s hard to believe them.

But surely the moment has arrived to drop the anger and get on with the job of developing Alberta. Consider the comments from Tim Hodgson, the federal minister of energy and natural resources, as the Oilsands Alliance MOU was announced Tuesday. “Canada has what it takes to be an energy superpower: resource abundance, growing international trade relationships and a world-class workforce.

“Over the last eight months, we have been steadily delivering on each commitment in the Canada-Alberta MOU, working with Alberta and the energy industry to build major energy infrastructure, reduce emissions, create jobs and prosperity, and secure energy sovereignty. “The Pathways Project is critical to delivering on these goals and maintaining a thriving, responsible energy sector for the long-term.” Hodgson is not just an ally.

He’s a booster. Remarkably, we’re at the point where UCP Premier Smith and Liberal PM Carney are fully invested in each other’s success. If either one turns traitor, they’re both destroyed.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald X and Bluesky : @DonBraid