The David Suzuki Foundation urges prime minister to reject pipeline proposal that seeks to roll back key environmental and climate policies
VANCOUVER — UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES:
Today’s bitumen pipeline announcement, which Alberta has proposed to run to the West Coast through the TMX corridor, will roll back environmental protections that took advocates years to win. The project will rely on an undetermined amount of taxpayer funds.
The announcement arrives just two days after Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted that Canada will not meet its emissions targets, and the same day as Canada announced plans to expand LNG facilities in B.C.
In response to the proposal, Janelle Lapointe, Senior Adviser, Indigenous Strategy, David Suzuki Foundation, said:
“This proposal tells Canadians to believe that more fossil fuel infrastructure is compatible with meaningful climate action and that treating Indigenous lands as sacrifice zones is reconciliation.
“Indigenous Nations are leading some of the most innovative renewable energy and stewardship projects in the country. If the government is serious about building a strong and prosperous future, it should be investing in renewable energy solutions rather than advancing projects that place our lands and waters at a greater risk. We call on the federal government to respect Free, Prior, and Informed consent and reject this proposal outright.”
In response to the proposal, Thomas Green, senior manager climate solutions, David Suzuki Foundation, said:
“Alberta has used the prospect of a pipeline to extract a sweeping rollback of federal climate policy: a weakened industrial carbon price, the promised weakening of the clean electricity regulations and abandonment of the oil and gas emissions cap. These rollbacks are not only costly for the environment, but they’re also costly to taxpayers from fossil fuel subsidies. And the majority of Albertans agree that their economy is too dependent on fossil fuels.
“In yesterday’s speech, Carney basically said his government has given up meeting Canada’s emissions targets. And because the fossil fuel industry is the most polluting industry in Canada, this bitumen pipeline, and this morning’s agreement to expand LNG exports in B.C., puts Canadians’ homes, livelihoods and taxpayer dollars at risk.
“Burning the exported crude overseas will boomerang back on Canada in the form of extreme wildfires, droughts and floods. People in Canada are paying the price — struggling with affordability and suffering through extreme heat — as this government treats yesterday’s fossil economy as the only economic strategy on the table. The rest of the world is racing to benefit from the clean-energy economy by swapping dirty fossil fuels for renewables, batteries and technologies powered by electricity.
“The agreement with Alberta for governments to own the pipeline and to use taxpayer funds repeats the costly error of the TMX pipeline, which went massively over budget. People in Canada want Carney to come to his senses, to outright reject this fossil fuel agenda and to focus on renewables, affordable electricity and electrification. More than 25,000 people from across Canada have signed our petition and over 250 have called their MPs demanding that Ottawa reject Alberta’s pipeline ploy. Canadians have spoken: the federal government must stop diverting funds and government’s agenda to fast-track fossil fuels.”
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For more information or interviews, please contact:
Rosie Rattray: rrattray@davidsuzuki.org, 604-732-4228, ext. 132
Notes to editors:
We’re already witnessing records temperatures throughout Canada and abroad: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-heat-weather-records-fall-9.7247997 and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4d2vv935lo
Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causes-effects-climate-change
Electrifying world: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-sets-sights-heavy-truck-electrification-blow-diesel-demand-2026-06-15/
No oil to fill the pipeline: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chris-severson-baker-15a24969_the-pipeline-is-political-not-economic-share-7478533794149396481-F3F1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABPe06cB8FnEfVirqCME4gnM33iojryAvr8
67 per cent of Albertans think province is too dependent on the oil and gas sector: https://www.pembina.org/media-release/majority-albertans-dont-want-taxpayer-dollars-used-pipeline-say-provinces-economy