The Governor in Council has listed the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest. Order in Council PC 2026-0925 (dated 1 October 2026) makes the Order Amending Schedule 1 to the Building Canada Act under subsection 5(1), adding the corridor as Item 1 on Schedule 1. The Prime Minister’s Office, speaking from Fort McMurray the same day with Premier Danielle Smith, brands the project Pacific Link. Alberta’s project page confirms the listing. Canada Gazette Part II’s latest regular edition index still shows Volume 160, Number 19 (23 September 2026) — Part II publication can lag; the Order itself is the listing instrument.
Schedule 1 listing is a statutory fast-lane designation — not a CER certificate, not an Impact Assessment decision, and not a shovel in the ground.
What the Order does
PC 2026-0925 amends Schedule 1 by adding:
- Name: West Coast Oil Pipeline
- Description: interprovincial pipeline capable of transporting one million barrels per day of Canadian crude from Bruderheim, Alberta (~50 km northeast of Edmonton) to a deepwater port near Delta, British Columbia (~35 km south of Vancouver), for transfer to vessels including Very Large Crude Carriers
- Major components: receipt tank terminal; pipeline up to ~1,250 km; power interconnection / transmission / possible generation; about 11 pump stations; delivery tanks and offshore marine loading
Proponents named in the Order’s recitals: Trans Mountain Corporation, Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, and Pembina Pipeline Corporation. The recitals state the Governor in Council is of the opinion the project is in the national interest after the 1 August 2026 Gazette Part I notice, provincial and Indigenous consultation under the Act, and weighing of subsection 5(6) factors. The appended Explanatory Note (not part of the Order) records Alberta’s 2 July 2026 Major Projects Office submission and the November 2025 / May 2026 Canada–Alberta pathway instruments.
What Ottawa and Alberta put on the record
PMO (1 October, Fort McMurray): official listing under Schedule 1; Canada and Alberta to share equal ownership; Indigenous communities offered a minimum 10% ownership interest financed through Indigenous loan-guarantee programs; Pembina as private-sector investor; Trans Mountain Corporation leading development; southern route framed as protecting the North Coast / Great Bear Sea; Major Projects Office, supported by the CER, to finalise a conditions document by 1 September 2027. Government estimates cited in the release — 140,000 jobs, over $20 billion GDP per year, $100 billion government revenue by 2060 — are projections, not audited cash already received. Alberta.ca timeline: listed 1 October 2026; early construction “as early as” 1 September 2027 only after consultation, approvals, and the federal conditions document.
Contested: Proponents frame Indo-Pacific market access, sovereignty, and jobs. Climate and coastal advocates contest fossil expansion, tanker risk, and compressed review. This piece verifies the Order and the listing clock — not a lifecycle emissions audit or an invented Indigenous consent ledger.
What this is still not
Listing does not equal a CER certificate, Fisheries Act / SARA permits already issued, Impact Assessment complete, or construction underway. The Building Canada Act pathway is designed so the forthcoming conditions document would integrate permits that would otherwise issue separately. Watch that document — and any later Gazette Part II registration — without rewriting today’s Order.
Bottom line
Verified as of 2 October 2026: PC 2026-0925 (1 Oct) lists the West Coast Oil Pipeline on Schedule 1; PMO/Alberta brand it Pacific Link; ~1 Mb/d Bruderheim–Delta concept; MPO/CER conditions target 1 Sep 2027. Do not write “pipeline approved to build” or invent a Gazette Part II Extra that is not yet on the Part II index.
