FORT MCMURRAY — Prime Minister Mark Carney says an oil pipeline to the West Coast is the first project to receive national interest designation under the Building Canada Act.

Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made the announcement together in Alberta’s oilsands hub of Fort McMurray.

The pipeline has an official name, Pacific Link, and Carney says the federal major projects office will work to finalize conditions by Sept. 1, 2027.

The project, estimated at between $35.2 billion to $43.7 billion, is to be split between Trans Mountain Corp., a federal Crown corporation, and the Alberta government.

Indigenous communities will be offered a minimum of 10 per cent ownership interest, financed through federal and province loan programs.

The roughly 1,250-kilometre pipeline would carry upwards of one million barrels of crude oil per day from Bruderheim, Alta., to a port near Delta, B.C. for shipment to international markets.

More coming.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press