Prime Minister Mark Carney signed separate agreements with British Columbia and Alberta on July 2, 2026, travelling from Vancouver to Calgary in a single day. Ottawa is framing both deals under its One Canadian Economy agenda — a strategy aimed at diversifying Canada's exports and reducing its reliance on U.S. markets.

The BC agreement: nearly $20 billion in federal investment

In Vancouver, Carney announced the Canada-British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement alongside Premier David Eby, committing nearly $20 billion in federal funding to the province. The package covers transportation infrastructure, clean energy projects, child care expansion, and workforce training. Ottawa and Victoria will jointly oversee an Implementation Committee to track how well the projects meet their targets.

The federal government projects the BC investments will attract more than $200 billion in private sector spending and help Canada double its non-U.S. exports over the next decade, according to the Government of Canada's press release. Those are government figures, not independent assessments, and they will likely face scrutiny once project timelines become concrete.

One notable absence: the federal tanker-loading moratorium on BC's North Coast remains unchanged. Ottawa confirmed the ban stays in place. This matters because the moratorium had been widely expected to be part of the negotiation, particularly after a November 2025 memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and Edmonton raised the possibility of a new West Coast pipeline.

The Alberta agreement: a pipeline and a strategic shift

Later that day in Calgary, Carney joined Premier Danielle Smith to announce Alberta's proposal for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific. The pipeline would be built by the federally owned Trans Mountain Corp. in partnership with Pembina Pipeline Corp., using a southern route through British Columbia.

Smith's acceptance of the southern route represents a notable change in her public stance. She had previously argued that any new Pacific-bound pipeline should use a northern corridor to BC's coast — a route that would have directly engaged the tanker-ban question. By accepting a southern routing with the moratorium left in place, Smith has removed that specific leverage point, at least for the present.

This July 2 agreement follows a deliberate sequence of federal-provincial steps. It builds on a November 2025 memorandum of understanding, an Implementation Agreement signed May 15, 2026, and an April 2, 2026 co-operation agreement between Alberta and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to speed up major project reviews — a parallel arrangement already in place with BC. The May implementation agreement explicitly committed both governments to "continue to engage with British Columbia immediately in a trilateral discussion on the pipeline application," language the July 2 federal press release repeats: Canada and Alberta will keep engaging with BC as the pipeline application moves forward.

The LNG context

BC's energy position heading into this agreement was already shifting. On May 1, 2026, LNG Canada's partners approved hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investment. On May 27, the Ksi Lisims LNG project — which received environmental approval in September 2025 — signed a supply agreement with Germany's Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), moving it closer to a final investment decision. These commercial developments gave Ottawa and Victoria a stronger foundation for arguing the broader case about export diversification.

What happens next

The pipeline application now enters trilateral discussions among Ottawa, Alberta, and BC. However, BC has not formally endorsed the pipeline proposal itself — the Cooperative Prosperity Agreement is a wider economic partnership. The southern routing through BC will require its own Indigenous consultation, environmental assessment, and provincial approval. Trans Mountain Corp., which already operates the expanded TMX corridor, understands that regulatory landscape, but building a new pipeline typically takes years.

For observers of how Ottawa manages federal-provincial relationships, the timing of these announcements is no accident. Two co-operation agreements on environmental reviews (April), then an Alberta implementation agreement (May), then dual provincial accords in early July — Ottawa has built the supporting framework before unveiling the full proposal. Whether BC signs on to the pipeline application itself will likely determine whether this entire structure succeeds.