Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are expected to announce an agreement on industrial carbon pricing in Alberta on Friday, Global News has learned, a key component for a potential new oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast.
A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations says the federal and provincial governments are expected to increase Alberta’s effective industrial carbon pricing from $95 this year to $100 per tonne in 2027, rising to $130 per tonne by 2040. Global News is not identifying the source as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
British Columbia Premier David Eby is concerned the increase — which would sit well below the current federally mandated level of $170 per tonne by 2030 — gives Alberta an unfair advantage.
“We will not be in a competitive position if Alberta has a special federal carbon price the rest of us don’t have access to in the rest of Canada,” Eby said.
The expected announcement on Friday, which was confirmed by two sources who did not give further details, comes after Smith and Carney met in Ottawa last week.
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After the meeting, the premier told Global News she was optimistic about a potential pipeline being built.
“I hope that we’ll be able to announce that we’ve come to an agreement very soon, and that will start paving the way to show Albertans that Canada can work,” Smith said Friday.
Ottawa and Alberta have agreed on many elements of the memorandum of understanding announced last fall, which promises to build an oil pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. However, several key sticking points were not resolved by the April 1 deadline.
A trilateral agreement involving Ottawa, Alberta and the energy companies behind the Pathways carbon capture and storage project is also still being negotiated.
Carney has repeatedly referred to the MOU and the proposed pipeline as a “grand bargain,” aimed at increasing oil production while reducing emissions through a carbon capture and storage project that would permanently sequester carbon.
“For a pipeline to be built, the industrial carbon price has to be on this path to increase in Alberta. Secondly, there has to be the Pathways project,” Carney told Global News in December.
There is also still no private proponent for the potential pipeline to the B.C. coast, nor an identified route.
Smith said in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block that a government pipeline submission to the federal Major Projects Office would include a breakdown of various proposed routes.
She said five possible ports have been identified, including in Metro Vancouver.
—With files from Global’s Sean Boynton
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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