Southern pipeline route a win for PG, relief for Lake Babine Nation

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Smith described the project as essential for the country and told reporters that Canada needs to act quickly to meet global energy demand.

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“The recent communique from the G7 meetings in France specifically referenced Canada’s opportunity to be an energy superpower to support global demand,” Smith said. “We must go all in and seize it.”

Carney said the agreement is a nation-building project that will benefit all regions of the country. ” There is enormous private investment that’s going to come,” the prime minister said. “That’s for the benefit of all Albertans and all Canadians, including the fact that it will provide resources to government to support our vital social programs, educate our children and move forward as a country.”

The project will be managed by a development company owned by Ottawa, Alberta, and Pembina. Indigenous partners will have the chance to buy a share once the pipeline is running. Trans Mountain Corporation will handle construction, regulations, engagement, and operations. Pembina will start with a 10 percent stake during construction, with the option to increase it to 20 percent when oil begins to flow.

The goal is to have final agreements in place by September 2026.

Prince George reaction: “A win for everybody”

For businesses in Prince George, choosing the southern B.C. route takes away a lot of uncertainty.

Neil Godbout, executive director of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, said the southern route is the right choice and does not leave the north behind.

“This is good news both on a provincial and national and frankly even on a regional standpoint,” Godbout said. “We’ve got lots of major projects happening both in Prince George and in north central B.C.”

He listed several projects: the Red Chris mine expansion, the North Coast transmission line, which is backed by over three billion dollars, the Enbridge Sunrise natural gas pipeline expansion, a wind farm, and a hospital expansion in Prince George worth nearly two billion dollars.

“Business likes certainty,” Godbout said. “The southern route is much more reliable than the northern route, which has no clear path, while the southern route mostly follows an existing one. This benefits everyone because it will get Alberta oil to market faster, which is good for all businesses.”

Godbout said a northern route would have been “too much” for the region to absorb on top of everything already underway.

“There would have been so much uncertainty wrapped up in terms of putting deals together with communities and with First Nations, where provincially we will all benefit from a pipeline expansion that will go through southern B.C.,” he said. “We’ve got lots going on here, so it’s not like we’ve missed out on anything. This is good news for all of us.”

He said the local labour market is already tight. Prince George’s unemployment rate is three percent, which most economists consider to be full employment.

“Our challenge actually forward might be that we’ve got these major projects coming online. And do we have the workforce capacity for it? We’re in a good place right now.”

Lake Babine Nation: “Relief” after months of worry

North of Prince George, the mood is one of quiet relief.

All three of the hypothetical northern routes for the proposed bitumen pipeline had been drawn across Lake Babine Nation territory. Chief Wilf Adam said the announcement removes a threat his community was preparing to fight.

“My reaction was relief because that’s our land that it is going to go through,” Adam said. “The oil that was possibly going through our territory would do much damage to our salmon and to our ecosystem.”

Adam said, “There is a risk of a spill if there is a spill in our territories; it is very hard to clean up,” he said. “It stays within the territory, in the area where it is built. So we just cannot have that.”

The chief said opposition inside the nation had reached the point where members were ready to physically block the project.

“In one of our communities that may have been affected, we were ready to put our lives on the line to make sure it doesn’t go through,” Adam said. “So I’m glad we didn’t have to do that.”

The joint federal-provincial announcement also confirmed the oil tanker moratorium covering the coastal waters west of Lake Babine Nation will remain in place. In a written statement, Chief Adam called that “sound ecological practice” and “very strong intranational policy,” saying it spares many northern B.C. First Nations from having to defend what should already have been “a foregone conclusion.”

“I’m glad that it is not coming through our territory, and it’s because of the danger of it,” Adam said. “A spill would have hurt the economy and, more importantly, the land itself. It could have caused a lot of damage.”

Adam said the nation remains open to responsible industry. He pointed to the many projects already operating on Lake Babine territory as proof.

A “first-of-its-kind” project

Pembina president and CEO Scott Burrows described the pipeline as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for Canada. He said the company brings over 70 years of project experience and emphasized that the deal includes safeguards against cost overruns.

Pembina’s participation still depends on a final investment decision. The company says it will have no at-risk development capital until that decision is made.

The private sector currently holds a 10 percent stake, but Smith said this could change as Indigenous groups join and the project develops.

Looking ahead

The pipeline still needs to go through regulatory review, Indigenous consultation along the southern route, and a final investment decision from Pembina. Final agreements are expected in September.

For now, some people in the northern half of the province are celebrating the fact that there will be no bitumen pipeline running through its fragile watersheds. At the same time, the region still benefits from billions of dollars in mining, transmission, health care, and energy projects already underway.