Ottawa Named a 1,250-Kilometre Pipeline Without Publishing Its Route
Ottawa has named the endpoints and scale of a proposed Alberta-to-British Columbia oil pipeline, while leaving the communities between them unstated.
The proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline would carry one million barrels of crude a day from Alberta to a deep-water port near Delta. The federal notice specifies the machinery, but not the path, price or construction date.
At a proposed tank terminal in Bruderheim, about 50 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, Canadian crude oil would be received, measured and stored. Pumps would then push it into a new pipeline.
The oil’s next specified stop would be a deep-water port near Delta, British Columbia, about 35 kilometres south of Vancouver. There it would enter delivery tanks, move through an offshore loading facility and be loaded onto Very Large Crude Carriers for shipment to global markets.
Between those points, the federal record leaves a blank.
The Canada Gazette notice, published in a supplement dated August 1, describes a pipeline as long as approximately 1,250 kilometres, supported by about 11 pump stations and capable of moving one million barrels a day. It does not identify the route those kilometres would follow.
The notice calls the proposal the West Coast Oil Pipeline. It supplies a starting point, a destination and a list of major components. It also gives notice of a possible decision to place the project on Schedule 1 of the Building Canada Act as a project of national interest.
It is not an approval. It is not yet a listing. It is notice that the Governor in Council may make one.
One million barrels, eleven pump stations, no line on the map
The physical outline is short and specific.
The project would include a receipt tank terminal at Bruderheim. The pipeline could extend up to approximately 1,250 kilometres. Power interconnection, transmission and possible generation would support it. Approximately 11 pump stations would maintain flow rate and pressure over the distance.
At the British Columbia end, a delivery tank terminal and offshore marine loading facility would be built with capacity for Very Large Crude Carriers. The notice does not identify the precise port site. It places the destination near Delta.
Three organizations are advancing the proposal: Trans Mountain Corporation, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Pembina Pipeline Corporation. According to the notice, they would form and lead a new jointly owned entity.
The ownership shares are not given. Neither is the cost.
There is no construction schedule, operating date or account of how the pipeline would cross the distance between Bruderheim and Delta. The notice does not list intermediate communities, water crossings or the location of the proposed pumping stations. It describes the machinery of a corridor before identifying the corridor itself.
That distinction matters because the document is not a project application. Its immediate purpose is narrower. The Major Projects Office is giving notice under subsection 5(1.1) of the Building Canada Act that the Governor in Council may add the proposal to the law’s schedule of national-interest projects.
The project’s specifications therefore arrive inside a decision about status. Ottawa is not yet publishing the full plan. It is identifying the proposal that the Governor in Council may choose to move through a streamlined federal approval process.
The decision before the Governor in Council
The notice says the Building Canada Act allows the government to streamline federal approval processes for projects determined to be in the national interest. It says that process is intended to move projects forward efficiently while protecting the environment and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Governor in Council may consider any factor it regards as relevant when deciding whether to list a project. The notice gives five examples.
The first is whether the project can strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security. The second is whether it can provide economic or other benefits to Canada. The Governor in Council may also consider the likelihood of successful execution, whether the project advances the interests of Indigenous peoples, and whether it contributes to clean growth and Canada’s climate-change objectives.
The document does not say how the proposed pipeline performs against any of those considerations. It states the criteria, then describes the project.
It also does not identify which federal approval processes could be streamlined if the pipeline is listed. The legal consequence is presented in general terms. The project-specific consequences are left for later.
The Building Canada Act’s concentration of decision-making power has already been the subject of parliamentary testimony covered by Hansard Files. This Gazette notice shows the mechanism moving from the abstract to a named proposal. Schedule 1 is no longer just a space in a statute. A 1,250-kilometre oil pipeline is being considered for it.
Consultation has started, but the notice says little about it
Dominic LeBlanc, as President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and the minister responsible under the Act, will consult the governments of Alberta and British Columbia on behalf of the Governor in Council. The notice identifies them as the provinces where the project would be situated.
It separately says consultation with Indigenous rights-holders is already underway. It does not name the rights-holders, describe the format of those talks, give their locations or state when that consultation began.
The public has until September 18 to submit views on considerations that should guide the government’s decision. The notice provides one email address: WCOPComment-CommentaireOCO@mpo-bgp.gc.ca.
It does not specify a required format for submissions. Nor does it say when the Governor in Council will decide whether to place the pipeline on Schedule 1.
For now, the public record is precise where the project can be counted. One million barrels each day. Up to approximately 1,250 kilometres. About 11 pump stations. Three organizations preparing a new jointly owned entity. One proposed loading facility with capacity for Very Large Crude Carrier vessels.
Where the project can be located, financed or timed, the notice is much thinner. Bruderheim is named. Delta is approached only as “near.” Everything between them remains undescribed.
The federal government has published the scale of the pipeline it may declare to be in the national interest. The route that would carry that national interest across two provinces has not yet appeared on the page.
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Source Documents
Major Projects Office. (2026, August 1). Notice - West Coast Oil Pipeline. Supplement to Canada Gazette, Part I, 160(31), 2-3.
thanks Mike. I thought that the route was chosen. I had no idea the maps I have seen were fantasy (so far).