This op-ed was written by Gordon Laxer for the Toronto Star on March 6, 2025. Laxer is a political economist, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, the founding Director of Parkland Institute, and a founding member of the Council of Canadians.
Do we need new east-west oil pipelines to gain energy sovereignty and supply Atlantic Canadians with domestic oil? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and other heavy hitters in the Conservative party think so.
When pipelines were laid in the 1950s to get Alberta oil to southern Ontario and Quebec, a big mistake was made. Instead of taking an all-Canadian route through Northern Ontario like the three transcontinental railways and the natural gas pipeline did, they went through Illinois and Michigan on their way to Sarnia, Ont. In a trade war, Trump could stop central Canadians from getting Western Canadian oil.
That was then. Trump is now. We can’t wait 15 years before a new oil pipeline 4,600 kms from Alberta to Saint John, N.B., delivers a single drop of oil to Atlantic Canadians.
There are better ways to gain energy sovereignty and deliver affordable energy.
Whether Trump’s tariffs remain for long, we must decouple our economy from the U.S. as much and as quickly as possible. It will not be easy, but if we summon the resolve we showed in the Second World War, when we built whole industries from scratch, it can be done.
Building new pipelines would be a costly folly. The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion cost ballooned from $4.5 billion to $34 billion. Building an oil pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick would be a risky wager — that Canada can defy the energy transition that most of the world is quickly moving toward. Does anyone imagine that there will be much demand for high-cost, high carbon oil from Alberta’s tarsands in the 2040 when a new pipeline could start flowing?
It’s way cheaper and faster to retool existing oil refineries at Come By Chance, NL and Saint John, N.B. to handle Newfoundland’s sweet light crude oil to replace the heavier, imported oil they now use. Newfoundland has enough conventional oil to supply Atlantic Canada.
Most Atlantic Canadians live on or near a coast and get oil mainly by tanker ship and tanker truck. There is no need to pipe in domestic oil from far away Alberta when Newfoundland oil can be shipped in. No new pipeline means so new incursions on First Nations lands.
While transitioning off oil and gas, we can ship Western oil to Central Canada on all-Canadian rail lines built over a century ago. As Canadians oil use falls, rail cars can be removed. Pipelines must be kept full to be viable.
Pipeline advocates warn of the dangers of moving oil by rail and point to the tragic explosion at Lac Mégantic, Que. To make rail much safer, we must: use double-hulled, strong tank cars built in Winnipeg, label contents properly, maintain track well, restrict speeds properly, staff the trains sufficiently, and circumvent heavily populated areas.
Trump may slow the energy transition, but with the cost of wind, solar and battery storage falling so dramatically, he can’t stop it. Furthermore, temporarily raising U.S. oil production, will inadvertently drop the international oil price. That would make Alberta oil, already a high-cost, high-carbon product, less economically viable.
Canada is a hydroelectricity superpower. Hydro already provides 60 per cent of Canada’s electric power. Hydro naturally partners with intermittent renewable sources — wind, solar, and tidal. When the sun shines and the wind blows, water builds behind hydro dams. Open the dams when those sources falter.
Instead of new east-west pipelines, we need an east-west electricity grid that brings hydroelectricity from the four great hydro provinces — B.C., Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland Labrador — to their hydro-deficient neighbouring provinces.
What about deepening stronger trade links with other countries? The Trans Mountain pipeline takes Alberta oil to the Vancouver area. Most is exported to the U.S. The Canadian government can redirect it to Pacific Rim countries.
To forge stronger links with countries in the European Union and Britain, which are rapidly decarbonizing, Canada must stop being the G7’s carbon bad boy. They want trade links with countries that are similarly decarbonizing.
There are far better ways to energy sovereignty than constructing new pipelines to move a high-cost, carbon-spewing industry that is fated to be phased out.
