Clean Energy Canada | Is it really a good idea for the government to subsidize a pipeline?
October 1, 2026

Image of a pipeline to represent a proposed west coast 'pacific link' oil pipeline from alberta through b.c. intended for asian markets recently designated a project of national interest by the Mark Carney government, which Clean Energy Canada's latest op-ed questions on the basis of the global direction of the energy transition already underway.

Ottawa officially designated a proposed West Coast pipeline as a project of national interest on Thursday. During the announcement in Fort McMurray, Prime Minister Mark Carney cited the pipeline’s economic value.

But the government’s huge subsidization of this project – up to 90 per cent of a $40-billion pipeline with ownership split evenly between Ottawa and Edmonton – lays bare a reality unfolding across the world economy: Fossil fuels aren’t just losing to clean energy. They’ve lost.

In fact, the difference is now a trillion-dollar one.

While global energy investment is on track to reach US$ in 2026, around US$ of that amount is set to go toward clean energy: power grids, energy storage, low-emission fuels, nuclear, renewables, energy efficiency and electrification. According to the International Energy Agency, US$ will go to oil, natural gas and coal – and the future will increasingly favour clean energy.

Keep reading this story in the Globe and Mail.