Canada-Alberta Miss Carbon Pricing, Capture Deadline

Negotiators from the federal government and Alberta missed an April 1 deadline for agreements on carbon pricing and a major carbon capture project, as outlined in a memorandum of understanding signed last November between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. The MOU aims to advance energy development while addressing emissions reductions, serving as a precondition for Ottawa's support of Alberta's proposed million-barrel-per-day pipeline to the West Coast.

The agreement, reached on November 27, 2025, established four key commitments to facilitate the pipeline, which would connect Alberta's oilsands to British Columbia's tidewater for exports. While the deadline passed without final deals on the remaining two items, officials reported progress on the other two: a draft arrangement to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 75 percent from 2014 levels by 2035, and a streamlined "one project, one review" process for environmental assessments of major projects within Alberta, such as oilsands developments, carbon capture initiatives, power facilities, and pipelines.

Talks on carbon pricing center on the timeline for Alberta to increase its...