Canada’s Building Trades Unions welcomes the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed today by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. This MOU has the potential to be a transformational move in Canada’s energy landscape, and a significant source of job creation for Building Trades members, whose skills and experience will be instrumental in making future projects a reality.
The MOU provides a clear approval process under the Building Canada Act for the construction of a new pipeline that, once complete, would transport at least one million low-emissions barrels per day.
Under this agreement, construction will progress on Pathways Plus, the world’s largest carbon capture, utilization, and storage project. Pathways Plus will create more than 40,000 jobs annually and generate $16 billion in GDP while reducing emissions.
The agreement also lays the framework for a strong industrial carbon pricing agreement for the province and an agreement to lower methane emissions by 75% over the next decade to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
“This announcement is a key step towards building our future energy infrastructure and enhancing Canada’s energy security during a time of economic uncertainty. If we are going to build a new pipeline, it’s crucial that we do it the right way. That means establishing the right conditions at the federal and provincial levels, and it also means ensuring that any project that moves forward includes prevailing wage, apprenticeship requirements, and project labour agreements, so we can attract the most experienced workers and meet the highest safety standards, while creating quality apprenticeship opportunities for the next generation of skilled trades workers,” said CBTU Executive Director Sean Strickland.
“This agreement is about more than just pipelines, and I’m pleased to see plans from the federal government to update industrial carbon pricing in support of scaling up carbon capture technology.”
CBTU commends the condition that Indigenous rights-holders and the government of British Columbia must sign off on any proposed projects and we look forward to working alongside the federal government to ensure strong labour conditions are implemented on future energy projects to ensure they are as much of a win for workers as they are for the economy.