Premier Danielle Smith likes the chances of a new multibillion-dollar pipeline moving oil from Alberta to the south British Columbia coastline getting built.

And those odds just improved on Thursday.

Varcoe: Odds improve for Pacific Link pipeline, with proposed project on accelerated path Back to video

“I feel like it’s pretty close to 100 per cent,” Smith said in an interview from Fort McMurray, moments after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the proposed West Coast pipeline has been designated a project of national interest, allowing for its approval to be expedited.

“I think it’s going be a new era for the country.”

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The newly named Pacific Link oil pipeline took a key step forward Thursday with the federal government deeming it a project of national importance, following a three-month evaluation by the federal Major Projects Office.

With the designation in hand under the Building Canada Act, the federal energy regulator and Major Projects Office will review the proposal, as well as consult with Indigenous communities, landowners, and other stakeholders.

The Major Projects Office will set the conditions for the development by September 2027, which would then allow for construction to start, with a possible startup around 2032 or 2033.

It marks an acceleration from the Trans Mountain expansion, which took more than a decade to unfold — from initial regulatory filings to it being built — while other proposed pipelines such as Northern........

© Calgary Herald