The federal government announced Friday it has approved Enbridge Inc.’s $4-billion Sunrise natural gas pipeline project in British Columbia. Here's a quick rundown of the project and why it's important.
What is the Sunrise Expansion Project?
The Westcoast Energy Limited Partnership, an affiliate of Enbridge, runs the Westcoast natural gas pipeline system, which connects gas fields in northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta to the Canada-U.S. border. It currently has peak capacity to ship 3.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Sunrise expansion would add 300 million cubic feet per day of transportation capacity.
The project involves adding almost 140 kilometres of new pipe by constructing 11 looping segments parallel to the existing line. While the gas that would flow through the expanded line is not bound for any particular destination, "some of the capacity will no doubt go offshore," said Matthew Akman, who leads Enbridge's gas transmission and midstream business, in a call with reporters Friday.
What are the geopolitical issues at play?
In the context of the current global energy crisis, fuelled in large part by the war in Iran and its disruption of oil and gas supply chains, this pipeline is a big deal, according to experts who spoke with The Canadian Press.
"It's another step toward diversifying our asset base in a world hungry for this," said Jay Khosla, the executive director of economic and energy policy with the Public Policy Forum and a former assistant deputy minister in the Privy Council Office.
"The South Koreans in particular are out there begging for any source of supply of gas at this moment in time. The Nepalese and the Bangladeshis and the Pakistanis are running out of cooking fuel, which is gas-based, (and) are moving to 4-day work weeks because the Qatari supply has been taken off the market," he said.
"This is all an effort to address that."
How does this play into Canada-U.S. relations?
While the expanded pipeline will help Canada meet the broader goal of reducing its reliance on the United States as a customer, it also helps position Canada as a necessary supplier to the United States.
"For a long time, the shale revolution in the United States was flooded with natural gas, and now we're starting to pick up again where the United States is importing more from Canada and wants more from Canada," said Heather Exner-Pirot, a senior fellow and director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
"They need more AI. They need more data centres. And they are exporting more LNG than they've ever exported, and we're talking about non-renewable resources.
"So I feel in my heart in the next 10 or 15 years, Canadian natural gas is going to be very important to the American natural gas story."
Khosla added that expanding Canada's export capacity could put it in a better position as it prepares to formally begin negotiations on the mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, better known as CUSMA.
"It really allows us to catalyze something that we've been trying to do for a long time, which is market diversification, leverage with the U.S., and for sure I do think that it could help with CUSMA," Khosla said.
"I know for a fact, and we've heard that, the president (Donald Trump) is not really thrilled that we're supplying Chinese markets with our oil right now because he knows he needs all of that.
"Like we give them pretty much 25 per cent of their source supply. All of these moves are very, very helpful to give us some leverage — and we don't have a lot, let's be honest."
What is the Carney government's political play here?
Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to build big and build fast as he tries to shore up Canada's economy in the face of U.S. protectionism and tariffs. But approving a new pipeline is a complicated process fraught with political landmines and opposition from environment groups and many Indigenous communities.
While Exner-Pirot said the expansion itself isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things — she described Enbridge's $4 billion investment as "table stakes" — she sees this as an easy win for the Carney government because it's natural gas, and British Columbia isn't opposed to it.
"It's good that we'll have construction. That's going to be very helpful for the B.C. economy, so it's absolutely not nothing," Exner-Pirot said.
"And there was Indigenous support. So a very easy thing for them to do and to say, 'We are building and we are being an energy superpower."
Khosla agreed that having both Indigenous support and ownership behind the project was key to pushing it through. He noted it was done without the need to refer it to the major projects office.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
