Varcoe: How to turn growing public support for pipelines into action: 'Let's get it done'on March 29, 2025 at 11:00 am

A growing number of Canadians want more pipelines built in the country. Read More

Eighty-eight per cent of respondents to a new poll see oil and natural gas as important to Canada’s economy

Trans Mountain pipeline — Workers survey around pipe to start of right-of-way construction for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, in Acheson, Alta., in 2019. Jason Franson/The Canadian Press

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A growing number of Canadians want more pipelines built in the country.

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Now, a new poll finds 88 per cent of respondents view oil and natural gas as important to the country’s economy today, up nine percentage points over the past half year, while seven in 10 see it as important to Canada’s future economy.

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Meanwhile, more premiers and federal politicians are climbing aboard the infrastructure train and want major projects constructed.

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As U.S President Donald Trump escalates tariff threats to the country and sentiment is growing that Canada needs to build more export-related developments — including oil and gas pipelines — how does talk turn into action?

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“We really seem to struggle as a country with execution,” said Monica Gattinger, a political scientist and chair of the Positive Energy research program at the University of Ottawa, which commissioned the poll.

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“The big question is, how do we turn this moment into momentum?”

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It’s an important issue.

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At a Financial Executives International Canada luncheon in Calgary on Thursday, former Trans Mountain Corp. CEO Ian Anderson and former Alberta premier Jason Kenney offered their ideas on how to get new energy infrastructure developed.

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Jason Kenney and former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins take part in a session on implications of the U.S. election during the Global Business Forum at the Banff Springs Hotel on Thursday September 26, 2024. Gavin Young/Postmedia

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It’s time to act while there is growing alignment between various levels of government, Indigenous communities, industry players and a strong majority of Canadians, said Anderson, who led the Trans Mountain expansion project for more than a decade until his retirement in 2022.

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“If we as a nation are going to do anything going forward, that (alignment) is the No. 1 thing we need, And now is the time for us to harvest that,” Anderson told the audience.

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“You see it, you feel it, that ability to align around an interest that’s good for the nation — it may be closer now than it has ever been.”

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TMX cost $34 billion to build and eventually required federal government ownership to get it finished. It has nearly tripled the capacity of the existing pipeline to move oil from Alberta to the B.C. coast for export to global markets.

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Other big-ticket projects that would have boosted Canadian oil export capabilities — including Energy East and Northern Gateway — were torpedoed last decade.

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With the Trump administration pledging to impose 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy and 25 per cent on other products, polls show growing support for building pipelines from sea to sea.