While previously touting his pledge to make Canada an “energy superpower,” Prime Minister Mark Carney went further on Tuesday, explicitly saying he supports building a pipeline if the consensus exists for one.
“First off, I’ve said repeatedly: yes. First point,” Carney said in an exclusive interview with CTV News’ Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, his first since becoming prime minister.
“Secondly, because I understand the need for that consensus. I’m a prime minister who can help create that consensus.”
Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, public and political support for new oil and gas pipelines has grown across the country, to reduce Canada‘s reliance on the United States.
While Carney committed in the Liberal platform to building Canada “into an energy superpower that combines our conventional energy resources with our unlimited potential when it comes to clean, affordable energy,” there was some mixed messaging during the federal election campaign about his support for pipelines.
When asked about energy projects and pipelines in an interview with Radio-Canada program Tout le Monde en parle back in April, Carney said in French, “We have to choose a few projects, a few big projects, not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines. We’ll see.”
Pressed by Kapelos on his shifting stance on some environmental initiatives – such as the consumer carbon tax, which he eliminated as prime minister, despite previously endorsing the policy – Carney reiterated his support for a pipeline.
“If you want a simple answer on ‘Will I support building a pipeline?’ Yes. That simple answer. I’ve given that multiple times,” Carney said, while that a pipeline alone is “not enough to make Canada an energy superpower.”
“Just doing one pipe. It’s good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good. That’s a positive thing and working collaboratively in order to happen. But it’s not enough,” he added.
Asked whether his push to make Canada an energy superpower means exporting more oil and gas, Carney said it’s “an element of it, but it’s not the element of it.”
“We need to do multiple things at the same time in order to build this base so that we are creating wealth and competitiveness, better lives for Canadians for generations,” he said.
“We’re going to be very ambitious across a range. That’s why we’re not asking for one nation building project. We’re asking for nation building projects, and we are going to move as rapidly as possible on as many of them as possible.”
Carney open to changing divisive C-69, emissions cap
In the past, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have expressed concerns about some Liberal environmental policies that they called divisive and say inhibit their provinces’ economic success.
Those policies include the emissions cap on the oil and gas sector, and Bill C-69, the 2019 law which changes the environmental review process for designated energy projects to weigh environmental and social issues when approving or rejecting a project.
During the election campaign, Carney said he planned to keep both contentious Trudeau-era policies. But when speaking to Kapelos on Tuesday, Carney described recent conversations he’s had with both Premier Moe and Premier Smith as “constructive.”
“We will change things at the federal level that need to be changed in order for projects to move forward,” he said.
When asked by Kapelos whether those changes could include Bill C-69 and the emissions cap, Carney directly said “absolutely, could include both.”
“I’m not going to do it conceptually. I’m going to do it on specifics. Do it for moving forward,” he added.
Following Carney’s federal election win, Smith made a public appeal for a “reset” in the relationship between Alberta and Ottawa, while also calling her first conversation with Carney as prime minister a “positive first step.”
Carney is set to meet with premiers at a first ministers meeting in Saskatchewan on June 2.
With files from CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk
