Doug Ford says Ontario taxpayers will invest in proposed pipeline from Alberta to Sarnia

“The cost of defending Canada’s sovereignty isn’t something that shows up on the private sector’s balance sheet,” the premier said Monday in Calgary.

“Our government is ready to step up with the capital necessary to build the Northern Shield pipeline,” said Ford of the proposed project that would move between 500,000 and 800,000 barrels of oil daily.

It would snake from Hardisty, Alta., to Sarnia via Regina and Winnipeg with a possible extension to the Port of Churchill in Manitoba.

“I want to be clear: what I’m talking about is government providing the patient capital needed to invest in our future,” he said of a project he and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested could be built in less than five years.

Ford emphasized the Ontario government, which is paying for a feasibility study, would be “an investor” and expressed hope private-sector proponents would come aboard.

“I’m just going to reinforce that we are not paying for this pipeline — we’re putting a small investment,” he said, declining to specify an amount.

In finance and investing, the term “patient capital” refers to a long-term investment that could mean waiting decades for any return.

“Critical infrastructure gets built, tens of thousands of jobs are created. We protect our energy and economic sovereignty and taxpayers get a return on their investment. It’s a win all around,” said Ford.

At Queen’s Park, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy stressed that “in this economic environment, it makes a lot of sense to get our natural resources to market.”

“I fully support, and we fully support pipelines to the West Coast, but we also have to think about moving oil and gas east,” Bethlenfalvy said Tuesday.

“So this is our vision for helping our economic sovereignty in this country, and building that pipeline is going to be critical to our economic sovereignty,” said the treasurer.

“We have to pivot our economy in ways that we haven’t looked at for decades,” he said.

“This is just another piece of working together with many constituencies like the federal government to kind of reorient our economy, to really challenge ourselves to build things faster, to build things for not just today but for the long term.”

Smith, who hailed the Northern Shield proposal, is also pushing a pipeline to British Columbia estimated to cost as much as $43.7 billion.

However, Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West) said Ford’s scheme was “a desperate attempt to try to show like they’re doing something to support Ontario workers.”

“Again, we’ve got layoffs going on in Hamilton. We’ve got nurses being laid off across this province. Things are dire,” said Bowman.

“The fact that now this government is talking about a pipeline is kind of like the tunnel under the 401,” she said, referring to Ford’s dream of an underground highway linking Mississauga to Scarborough.

“Where is the actual plan to get this built? I think it’s simply more talk.”