Ottawa needs to stop asking whether Canada should build another pipeline to tidewater. That debate is over. The real question is whether Canada can build one fast enough to get new supply to market before damaged Gulf capacity comes back. Recent attacks knocked out about 17 per cent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, and QatarEnergy says some of that capacity could take three to five years to restore. At the same time, the shock has already pushed buyers to hunt for replacement supply and driven U.S. LNG exports to a record high. This is not a theory. It is a market window.
When energy supply is disrupted, the damage is not contained to the energy sector. Indonesia is limiting fuel sales. Pakistan has slapped consumers with a 54.9 percent increase in diesel and a 42.7 percent increase in petrol. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says food prices rose again in March as conflict-driven energy costs climbed. Energy security is food security. Fertilizer, freight, farm fuel and grocery bills all move together. When stable countries do not supply the world, unstable prices do.
That is why diversification is now the governing fact of the market. Asian buyers are already scrambling for non-Qatari cargoes, with Taiwan moving to buy more from the U.S. and Australia and Japan’s JERA seeking extra supply from global producers. Canada does not need to replace the Gulf. It just needs to move fast enough to add secure new barrels and molecules before buyers lock in long-term alternatives elsewhere. The opportunity is real, but it will not wait for another decade of bureaucratic processes in Canada.
British Columbia is ready. Premier David Eby’s Look West strategy explicitly aims to secure $200 billion in major-project investment by 2035, streamline permitting, and make B.C. a top-tier place to invest. The province says it is already working with First Nations, communities and industry to deliver projects faster. That matters. The right model is not Ottawa bulldozing local interests. It is B.C., Indigenous partners and private capital aligned around growth. The provincial government and First Nation partners are already part of the process. What has not caught up is the federal policy framework.
And that brings us to Trans Mountain. TMX proved Canada can eventually get a pipeline built. It also proved our model to date is anti-investment. Reuters reported the final cost at about C$34 billion, nearly quintuple the 2017 estimate. That is not a model is a warning label. Investors do not look at TMX and see a country serious about speed, certainty or competitive infrastructure delivery. They see a country that makes major projects slower, riskier and more expensive than they need to be.
So, Prime Minister Mark Carney is right to pursue a pro-investment, wartime mindset for peacetime infrastructure. Prime Minister Carney’s own Building Canada Act says the review process should focus on how to get a project built, not whether it should be built. Good. Now designate a West Coast energy corridor as a project of national interest. Run one review, one consultation track, one set of conditions and one hard timeline. Give Canada the explicit goal of building the fastest major pipeline in the democratic world. Not the cheapest on paper. Not the most litigated. The fastest built in a democratic country, with clear rules, Indigenous partnership and real investor confidence.
Canadian energy does not destabilize the world. It stabilizes it. It reduces dependence on chokepoints, cushions food systems, and gives allies and trade partners a peaceful source of supply in a dangerous time. B.C. is ready. The market is ready. The world is clearly asking for diversification. Ottawa now has the runway to govern like a country in a race — or like one still holding committee meetings while this opportunity slips away.
Ryan Peterson is a local entrepreneur, tech executive, executive committee member of the Business Council of British Columbia and founding partner of BCBC’s Project Productivity.
