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Some in the oil and gas industry say the discussion to revive the Keystone XL pipeline should include compensation for the past cancellation of the project by other U.S. presidents. Finn Gomez/Getty ImagesAlberta lost $1.3 billion earlier this decade investing in the Keystone XL project when one U.S. president, Joe Biden, cancelled a cross-border pipeline permit that was signed by the previous president, Donald Trump.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorNow, Trump wants to see the project resuscitated, promoting the idea this week on social media while discussing the Canada-U.S. trade talks.Here’s an idea: if he really wants the pipeline to be built, how about the current president find a way to compensate Alberta taxpayers for money lost the last time around, due to the actions of the previous U.S. president?Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againOr, at the very least, take that loss into account.“This was a damage incurred by a Canadian government, which acted in good faith to sell the U.S. more energy. . . I wouldn’t let this become a deal-stopper,” said Jason Kenney, who was Alberta’s premier when the province decided to invest in the Keystone XL project in 2020.“That should be part of the discussion. We shouldn’t just walk away from it, and be typical Canadians and suck up our losses. It was the United States government that really dealt a blow to its trading relationship with Canada by blocking that project,” Kenney said in an interview earlier this week. Premier Jason Kenney announced, in Oyen, Alberta on Friday, July 3, 2020, that after more than a decade of planning, shovels were going in the ground on the Alberta segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. Photograph courtesy the Government of Alberta“Are they going to cut us a $1.3-billion-dollar cheque? I very much doubt it. But if there is a commitment to make this (project) happen, Alberta’s previous investment should be a part of the discussion. Where that lands, I don’t know.”Betting on the future of any cross-border energy project is risky, given the track record of unpredictable regulatory twists and turns, along with future elections leading to policy changes.Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. (later renamed TC Energy) unveiled plans for the Keystone XL pipeline project 18 years ago. It looked to ship more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Steele City, Neb., where it would connect to the company’s existing network, shipping Canadian crude south to the Gulf Coast.President Barack Obama rejected the project in 2015 over climate considerations. Trump approved it two years later.At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the UCP government announced it would make a $1.5-billion equity investment into the project to kick-start construction.However, after then-president Biden revoked the permit in 2021, Keystone XL was stopped and the province later tallied its losses at $1.3 billion.“I remember that number painfully, very painfully,” said Sonya Savage, who was Alberta’s energy minister at the time and previously worked as a lawyer in the pipeline sector.“There’s still a NAFTA claim . . . It was booked off as a loss and anything that’s recovered from it in the future would be a bonus.”The Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) started a claim in 2023 under the free trade agreement for damages tied to the presidential permit being nixed.A dispute over jurisdictional matters is still before an arbitration panel. Alberta Energy officials declined to comment this week on the matter as the legal process is ongoing.Richard Masson, who served as chief executive of the APMC last decade – he left three years before the province invested in KXL — doesn’t think it is likely the government will recover its investment.“Alberta took a risk. They put money into a project that failed, and that’s business. I don’t think there’s any leverage there, particularly,” Masson said of Trump’s backing of Keystone XL.“I think that’s just money gone.”Yet, Trump still wants to see Keystone XL brought back — or, more likely, a project using some of the Canadian pipeline already built for KXL to send more oil south.Calgary-based South Bow Corp., which was spun out of TC Energy in 2024 with the company’s oil pipelines, has pitched a project to move crude from Hardisty to the Canada-U.S. border, incorporating about 150 kilometres of previously installed 36-inch pipe. Miles of unused pipe, prepared for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, sit in a lot on October 14, 2014 outside Gascoyne, North Dakota. Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesIt would connect with a project by U.S.-based Bridger Pipeline, which would transport the product to Wyoming.Trump signed off on a cross-border permit this spring. South Bow held an open season process to determine shipper interest earlier this year, securing long-term commitments to move 465,000 barrels per day to U.S. delivery points.The Canadian firm expects to make a final investment decision next year.Matthew Lewis, founder of Denver-based Plainview Energy Analytics, said the commitment from shippers to the proposed South Bow project indicates its rates are competitive with other pipelines. But he pointed out other challenges could await the development.“There is a view, especially more recently with the Iran conflict and oil prices going higher, that we will have increasing Canadian production,” Lewis said.“I think that (the proponents) have to feel confident in that presidential permit and being able to withstand . . . the possibility of a new administration in 2029.”Savage said results from the open season show market confidence in the cross-border project. She also thinks Alberta’s plans for a West Coast pipeline, to help diversify market access, can also go ahead.“It would be highly unlikely that Trump would pay the loss back to Alberta,” she added.“What you could see happen is some sort of guarantee that protects any future revocation of the presidential permit.”Kenney, who is now on the board of Postmedia, believes reviving the north-south pipeline would be good for Alberta, Canada and the United States. It would lead to increased production and more industry investment in the oilsands.It’s also an opportunity for the president to be seen to deliver on a promise.“If we can get him on board to accelerate regulation on the U.S. side and perhaps participate in de-risking this financially, I think a project like this actually could be done in the life of this presidency,” said the former premier.As for Alberta’s past investment, it should be part of the broader conversation.“If we’re trying to hammer out a way forward on a new south-bound pipeline with Washington, they should be reminded, frequently, that a lot of the pipe is already in the ground, and an investment was already made by a Canadian company and a Canadian government, and that should not just disappear into the ether,” said Kenney.“I don’t think this should be a showstopper, but we were working with the first Trump administration on this in good faith, and I think that’s worth reminding them of.”Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.FP West: Energy Insider brings you behind the closed doors of the oilpatch, with exclusive insights from insiders every Wednesday morning. 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