'It's got to be done or we don't survive': plans for oil pipeline across northern Ontario getting 2nd look

Erik White · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 5:28 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

The commercialized warfare with the U.S. has immoderate Canadian politicians wanting to revisit the thought of a cross-country lipid pipeline.

A decennary ago, determination was a program to person the TransCanada earthy state pipeline that crosses bluish Ontario to transportation crude lipid from Alberta instead.

There was beardown section opposition, particularly successful bluish cities and towns wherever the lipid pipeline would transverse their root of drinking water.

The plan, known arsenic Energy East, was abandoned successful 2017. But present immoderate spot it arsenic a mode to beryllium much economically autarkic from the United States.

"I deliberation radical are getting much comfy with the information that it's got to beryllium done, oregon we don't survive," said Peter Politis, the politician of Cochrane, 1 of the galore bluish communities the pipeline runs through. 

"We tin nary longer beryllium connected the United States and I don't deliberation we're ever going to beryllium capable to beryllium connected the United States again. There's ever going to beryllium that hard learned lesson."

Politis was the politician backmost successful 2013 erstwhile TransCanada archetypal projected moving lipid done 1 of the 3 pipes buried successful the 1950s— which travel Highway 11 done the northeast from Hearst down to North Bay— and has since been re-elected. 

The erstwhile provincial Conservative campaigner says backmost past the "wedge issue" was astir the imaginable biology harm from an lipid spill, but feels it's "quite antithetic today."

"I don't cognize however it doesn't marque consciousness to astir radical that we request to diversify our system and we've got to beryllium capable to determination our earthy resources," said Politis. 

"I deliberation the absorption is present shifting onto what we tin responsibly do, arsenic opposed to lets debar it altogether due to the fact that there's a hazard that thing whitethorn hap to the environment."

While determination is nary authoritative connection for gathering an east-west pipeline and the caller owners of the earthy state enactment person expressed nary interest, Politis does deliberation it's worthy revisiting to sphere the Canadian economy. 

"We person to determination arsenic overmuch arsenic we can, arsenic speedy arsenic we can, get to those markets arsenic accelerated arsenic we tin and these are already shovel-ready projects. If we get immoderate liable reasoning and tweak them a small bit, they look to beryllium the ones we're going to beryllium capable to get to close away," helium said.

The strongest absorption successful the northeast to the program was successful North Bay, wherever similar galore different cities and towns on the route, the pipeline crosses its root of drinking water.

Chris Mayne, a North Bay metropolis councillor, says portion those biology concerns are "still precise valid," helium thinks galore are seeing however "Canadian vigor self-sufficiency does make a batch of sense."

"I deliberation a batch much radical would beryllium receptive to it now, who wouldn't person been six oregon 8 years ago," helium said. 

"You know, a batch of radical are inactive going to person biology concerns, it's conscionable however overmuch of a displacement has determination been successful nationalist sentiment for that?"

Mayne thinks the thought of a cross-country pipeline needs "long-term discussion" and not conscionable a knee-jerk absorption to the commercialized war, but says for him re-routing astir drinking h2o sources similar North Bay's Trout Lake would beryllium essential.