Pipeline development shouldn’t be a foreign concept for Canada: MLA Hunter

Posted on November 12, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Trevor Busch
Sunny South News
editor@tabertimes.com

Once considered a lost cause only a short few years ago in Alberta, the winds of political change in Ottawa and on the international scene have advanced the new Pacific Link pipeline project.

Designated as a project of national interest on Oct. 1 under the federal Building Canada Act, the project could now see shovels in the ground as early as September 2027. 

“I actually think that the federal government has finally recognized that Alberta is and can be the solution to being able to think big and build big again,” said Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter. “So I’m seeing really encouraging things from the federal government, and we’re just happy to see that after 10 years of Trudeau blocking Alberta’s resource development, it’s just great to be able to see us making some progress on this.”

As proposed, Pacific Link will be a 1,250 kilometre heavy crude pipeline designed to transport roughly one million barrels of oil per day from Bruderheim, Alta., to Delta, B.C., for export to Asian-Pacific markets. The estimated price tag rings in at somewhere between $35.2 and $43.7 billion.  

“A lot of the credit needs to go to Premier Danielle Smith, who has been fantastic at advocating and clearly articulating what Alberta can be for not just Albertans but for Canadians in building big projects that help put us on the map, and this pipeline – this million barrel a day pipeline – certainly helps to do that, and it helps get us to the next stage, which is doubling production,” said Hunter, who also serves as Minister of Environment and Protected Areas. “So moving from four million to eight million barrels a day in production, and this is really the big win for Albertans and for Canadians. In that, we’ll start to see again a boom in oil and gas, which is going to be helpful for good paying jobs. It’s also going to be helpful in terms of our bottom line for our government. Right now, we make anywhere between $14 to $24 billion in royalties off of oil – for that to increase, we’re looking forward to that. That’s going to be very helpful for us to build out more schools and hospitals and fix roads.”

In October, the Cold Lake First Nation filed an application for judicial review challenging the federal national interest designation, however Hunter is confident the courts will uphold the legal merits of the pipeline project.

“I know that the Cold Lake First Nation group has filed for a judicial review. I do think that the courts will recognize that the law of the land is very specific on this. It’s 120 days for projects of national interest. It was passed by Parliament in Ottawa, and it has support from provinces and from provincial leaders. First Nations, they have the right to a duty to consult, and a lot of consultation has moved forward. There’s still time to do more. We will continue to do more, but for them to file for judicial review, I feel quite confident that the courts will say it’s clear where the government’s right to legislate is, and the rights of Canadians is, to have this 120-day track for developing out projects of national interest,” said Hunter.

Regulatory hurdles and layers of red tape at various levels of government have held up major projects for too long in Canada, argues Hunter.

“Remember why we’re doing this – we’re doing this because Canada was a place where projects went to die for a long time, for decades. We have got to start building big. We have got to start thinking big and building big again, because that’s the only way we can be relevant when it comes to competition with the United States for investment, and for just being a country – are we a country, or aren’t we a country? We need to stand on our own two feet, and this is one of the ways you do that by thinking big and building big again.”