In October, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith proposed a new pipeline. “Without question, a new bitumen pipeline to the northwest British Columbia coast has the greatest potential economic benefit of any new nation-building project,” she declared. The problem is the kind of nation it would build. Such a country would be divided, with protests from B.C., Quebec and various Indigenous groups. It would be economically unbalanced, disproportionately benefitting Alberta with royalties and tax revenue. And it would be environmentally slipshod, expediting climate change and causing Canadians to suffer in the long term. We’ve already built that nation. Now we should look at a different model.

And yet today, Prime Minister Carney and Premier Smith signed a memorandum of understanding that lays the groundwork for such a pipeline. It’s surprisingly detailed and signals strong support for a pipeline from the federal government. Still, there are a few sticking points. The first is the need to finance it with private money. The timeline puts shovels in the ground as early as 2029 with possible completion in 2040 (and those dates are aspirational). What does the economic case for bitumen look like five years from now, or 15 years from now? The other wild card is the co-operation of First Nations people. Some in northwestern B.C. have accepted........

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