Canada's energy conversation shouldn't 'start and end' with pipelines, Carney says

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he agrees "more needs to be done" to support Canada's energy sector and strengthen the wider domestic economy, but reiterated he believes the industry should not revolve solely around the conventional oil and gas pipelines that have long fuelled political debate out West.

In an interview Tuesday, Carney said his new government will be focused on diversifying the energy sector beyond its roots in Alberta's oilpatch to include other, clean energy resources from across the country. He did not rule out pipelines as part of the discussion, but said he doesn't believe most Canadians see those projects as the be-all-end-all option.

"It's remarkable. In some circles, this conversation starts and ends with pipelines," Carney told CBC's Power & Politics host David Cochrane in Ottawa.

"But that's what it has become politically," Cochrane noted.

"No, that is not what it's become politically. That is not what it's become for Canada. Canada as a nation," Carney said.

"Canadians, yes, they want energy pipelines that make sense. They also want connections between our clean grids. They want actually less carbon, so they want carbon capture and storage … they want broader [mineral exporting] corridors, for example ... that open up whole swaths of the country to new trade so that we are sovereign in the most important components of the future," he continued.

"All of those things are possible."

Stalled or cancelled pipeline projects have fuelled feelings of alienation in the West for years. Oilpatch leaders chastised the previous Liberal government for introducing policies they said hurt the sector — like clean fuel regulations, the proposed emissions cap and changes to the federal assessment of major projects.

Concern has risen further since the Liberal Party held onto power in last month's election, despite only winning three of the 51 seats in the deep-blue provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Support for a referendum on Alberta's sovereignty has seen renewed support, in turn, with backers insisting the province has its own unique identity with values Ottawa doesn't share.

Asked on Tuesday how he planned to confront the discontent, Carney said he believes it was co-operation between Alberta and Ottawa that gave rise to the first large-scale commercial oilsands project he remembers from his childhood. (The prime minister was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., two years before the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant opened in Fort McMurray, Alta., in 1967.)

"When I was born, the oilsands was a concept," said Carney, who grew up in Edmonton. "It was the ingenuity of Canadians, many Albertan engineers and entrepreneurs, and the partnership between the federal government and the provincial government that made the oilsands what they are. This is what we need today."

Carney said multiple provinces and Indigenous leaders will also play a role.

"The only way to get [that co-operation], in my view, is to recognize what a moment that we are in, the need for ambition and the need to work together."

Tim Powers, a political columnist who has worked on numerous Conservative campaigns, said Carney could have been more direct in his answer but it was clear he's not outright against pipelines as a concept.