OTTAWA — Government and industry appear poised to miss Sunday’s deadline for an agreement on the Pathways carbon capture project, but Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson says all sides remain firmly committed to the proposal.
Under an agreement signed this summer on the Pacific Link Pipeline, the federal and Alberta governments, along with the Oil Sands Alliance, a group of the industry’s biggest companies, agreed to come up with firm deals to build the Pathways project. The project is proposed to capture carbon emissions from multiple oilsands facilities and sequester them deep underground.
At a press conference in British Columbia Friday, Hodgson said progress is being made even if the deadline might slip.
“We will get to a good outcome, and I’m confident we will in the next little while,” he said. “Whether we get there by November 15th, the day before, a day after, doesn’t really matter.”
Hodgson and the prime minister have both repeatedly said the Pathways project, which is designed to reduce emissions by six megatonnes per year, is linked to the pipeline and that one cannot go forward without the other. The government gave the pipeline a national interest designation last month, meaning it will be fast-tracked through regulatory hurdles. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she hopes it will break ground in late 2027.
The minister’s comments about the deadline mirror those of some of the industry partners in the alliance, which includes Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Suncor, Cenovus Energy and ConocoPhillips.
In a recent earnings call, Scott Stauth, president of Canadian Natural said the details matter more than the deadline.
“It’s more about focusing on ensuring that we get it right, then focusing on a particular day to get it completed and signed,” he said.
Suncor CEO Rich Kruger recently told investors that everyone was working hard on the deal, but that he was not rushing.
“We would far rather have a good deal when we’re ready versus a bad or an incomplete deal at an artificial date or deadline,” he said.
Etienne Rainville, a vice-president with the climate think tank Clean Prosperity, said he was not overly worried about a missed deadline, but that it was important for the government to show progress soon.
“If we’re months later, and we’re still having this conversation, let’s say at the start of 2027, then I’m starting to have concerns,” he said in an interview with the Star.
Rainville said the government should stick to its guns on linking Pathways with the pipeline, which he believes holds real potential to prove the value of such projects.
“Getting carbon capture going in Alberta at a grand scale as was proposed with the Pathways project is a pretty significant step in terms of unlocking further decarbonization opportunities in the province,” he said.
