Todd Korol/Reuters
Calgary, Ottawa

Alberta officials expect to see first oil move through a new pipeline to the West Coast by 2033 or 2034, after the province and Ottawa signed a long-awaited deal on carbon pricing and emissions reductions in the energy sector.

The agreement was inked on Friday by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. It finalizes the fine print of a memorandum of understanding they signed last year, which tied Ottawa’s support for a potential pipeline to Alberta increasing the carbon price it imposes on oil producers and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon capture and storage, also called CCS.

The two governments have agreed to an effective carbon price of $130 per tonne by 2040 by instituting annual benchmarks for the headline carbon price – or policy price – including $115 by 2030 and $130 by 2035.

Under Friday’s agreement, Alberta will submit an application for a new oil pipeline to the West Coast to Ottawa’s Major Projects Office on or before July 1. The federal government will then look to designate the pipeline as a project of national interest by Oct. 1.

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