Trump threats revive push for pipelines. Is Quebec on board?

On a stretch of land by the Ottawa River, near the Quebec-Ontario border, Katherine Massam points to a sign warning of a pipeline under "high pressure."

Beneath her feet runs Enbridge Line 9B, which transports oil from Alberta to Montreal refineries.

The proposed Energy East pipeline was also supposed to pass nearby, but the project was abandoned in 2017, after years of delays and opposition from environmentalists like Massam.

A mother of two, Massam worries about the possibility of pipeline leak and its effect on local drinking water. She's also concerned about how another project would make it harder for Canada to meet its climate targets.

"A pipeline spill would be a disaster," she said. Massam lives in Très-Saint-Rédempteur, Que., a small village dotted with farmland west of Montreal. She said opposition would quickly mobilize if another pipeline project were proposed.

"I think it wouldn't take much to get it woken up again," Massam said of the anti-pipeline movement. While resistance like hers has helped stall projects in the past, political winds may be shifting.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and threats to Canadian sovereignty have breathed new life into talk of national energy projects — including in Quebec.

The Quebec government is now signaling a new openness to projects like Energy East, which would have carried more than a million barrels of oil a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan across the country to Saint John, N.B.

Premier François Legault, who not long ago called Alberta oil "dirty energy," said last month Quebec would consider proposals — if they have "social acceptability."

A recent poll suggests more Quebecers now support the idea, though a majority remain opposed.

The province has said it's open to a natural gas pipeline to the Saguenay region, north of Quebec City, where it would be liquefied and shipped overseas. That project was scrapped in 2021 due to environmental concerns and strong public opposition.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has made reviving such projects central to his campaign. He wants to create an "energy corridor" to move oil to Saint John and build an LNG terminal in Saguenay.

He also promised to repeal Bill C-69 — the federal Impact Assessment Act — which allows regulators to consider environmental and social impacts of projects.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney has said he's open to pipelines. Carney said this week he wants Quebec to use Alberta oil instead of American imports — but only "with the support of First Nations" and "all the provinces, obviously including Quebec."