politics

Ottawa prepares to name a West Coast pipeline a project of national interest

The designation would move the proposed line into the streamlined approval track weeks before Alberta's referendum.

The Canadian

Politics

September 29, 2026

5 min read

A pipeline corridor through coastal mountains at dawn

The federal government is preparing to designate a proposed West Coast pipeline as a project of national importance, a step that would place it on the streamlined approval path created by the Building Canada Act. Sources say the required order-in-council is targeted for early October.

Under that legislation, a project must be listed by cabinet before it can move through the accelerated process. The proposed line was the first to receive a 30-day notice in the Canada Gazette in early August, the procedural step that precedes formal listing.

The Major Projects Office has begun outreach to First Nations whose territories would be crossed. That consultation will shape both the timetable and the conditions attached to any approval, and it remains the most consequential unresolved question around the project.

The timing is politically sensitive. The announcement would land weeks before Albertans vote in a referendum on the province's place in Canada, giving the designation weight well beyond the energy file.

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