For years, Alberta separatists have claimed Ottawa stands in the way of Alberta’s oil industry—blocking pipelines, slowing investment, and freezing the province out of decisions that affect its economy. The story is simple, they say: Alberta has no seat at the table.
But here’s the thing: the most important tidewater pipeline in Alberta’s history—the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX)—wasn’t just approved by Ottawa. It was bought, built, owned, and paid for by the federal government. A Liberal federal government, no less. With Canadian taxpayer dollars.
If that sounds like Ottawa blocking Alberta’s oil, it’s time to recheck the math.
The TMX Pipeline: Alberta Didn’t Just Get a Seat—Ottawa Bought the Table
Separatists say Ottawa blocks Alberta’s oil and shuts the province out. Yet the only pipeline that gets Alberta crude to tidewater—the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX)—exists because the federal government bought it, finished it, and took the financial risk when private investors would not. That’s not being shut out; that’s being backed up—by the rest of Canada’s taxpayers.
If Ottawa supposedly “gets in the way,” why did it purchase TMX for $4.5B in 2018, shoulder the ballooning cost to roughly $34B, and push it over the finish line so Alberta oil could reach global markets? And if the tolls shippers pay don’t cover full costs, meaning taxpayers are effectively subsidizing exports, how is that “no seat at the table”?
TMX is proof a united Canada works in Alberta’s interest: Ottawa intervened to secure tidewater access, expand capacity, and diversify markets. If Alberta separated, future pipelines would be harder, slower, and costlier—no Canadian ownership, no federal wallet, and no national leverage through British Columbia. Yes, international law recognizes a landlocked region’s right of access to the sea—which could mean by rail, road, or pipeline—but rights on paper do not pour concrete or finance steel. Canada did.
Fact 1: TMX exists because Ottawa stepped in when the market walked away
Kinder Morgan had one foot out the door in 2018 amid legal and financial risk. The federal government bought the system for $4.5B, created a Crown corporation (Trans Mountain Corporation), and committed to build the expansion. No federal action, no tidewater pipeline. Period.
What followed is simple: construction continued under federal ownership, and the expanded system entered commercial service in 2024. That’s the exact opposite of “Ottawa blocking Alberta’s oil.”
Fact 2: Taxpayers—across Canada—shouldered the risk and much of the cost
TMX’s price tag climbed to ~C$34B, making it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in Canadian history. Instead of cancelling, the Government of Canada kept going. Meanwhile, long-term shipping contracts and tolls—now the subject of ongoing regulatory and shipper disputes—do not fully recover capital costs, which multiple analyses say implies a public subsidy that could reach up to C$18.8B. In other words, Canadians at large picked up a big part of the bill to get Alberta oil to tidewater.
This directly challenges the “Ottawa takes Alberta’s money” claim. With TMX, Ottawa invested so Alberta could earn more from global markets—using money from Canadians in places like Timmins, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec, and St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Fact 3: TMX opens global markets—at serious scale, with real ships
TMX lifts system capacity to about 890,000 barrels per day and ties directly into the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, a three-berth, purpose-built loading facility for export tankers. That means Alberta is no longer captive to U.S. pipelines and pricing. It can sell into Asia and beyond—because Canada built a physical path to tidewater.
“This is a significant expansion of the country’s pipeline network, and it’s the first with direct access without having to rely on the United States,” said Lisa Baiton, CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
That diversification matters. More buyers usually mean better netbacks for producers and more stability for Alberta’s economy. And it was delivered under Canada’s safety, environmental, and marine rules—among the toughest anywhere.
Fact 4: Separation would make the next pipeline much harder—and much pricier
If Alberta leaves, there’s no federal balance sheet to buy or backstop a pipeline, no Crown corporation to see it through, and no national political leverage to push projects past British Columbia’s approvals and court challenges. Alberta would be left with higher borrowing costs and tougher negotiations—on its own.
Yes, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea recognizes a landlocked state’s right of access to and from the sea (Article 125), and Alberta already has that access today—by road, rail, and the TMX pipeline. But that right does not guarantee you will ever get another pipeline. It depends entirely on transit through another jurisdiction and does not compel anyone to build the infrastructure you want. Rights on paper do not finance multi-billion-dollar rights-of-way or overcome provincial environmental permitting.
Canada’s federal government just did that for TMX and for Alberta.
Fact 5: TMX shows Alberta already has influence—more than separatists admit
Trans Mountain is a federal Crown corporation, accountable to Parliament through Canada Development Investment Corporation, with its headquarters in Calgary. Its mission is to connect Western Canada’s oil to the world, and its system is the only pipeline that moves crude and refined products to Canada’s West Coast. That’s institutional, structural influence—baked into ownership, governance, and operations.
And if you still doubt the scale: the expansion nearly triples flow to the Pacific, and it entered service in 2024 after years of federal backing despite cost overruns, court challenges, and opposition. That is not Ottawa ignoring Alberta—that is Ottawa prioritizing a project central to Alberta’s economy.
Fact 6: TMX shrinks the oil price discount and boosts Alberta’s revenue
Before TMX, Alberta oil producers faced steep discounts—at times as wide as $50 a barrel compared to U.S. benchmark prices—because of limited pipeline and storage capacity. That bottleneck forced producers into bidding wars just to move product, letting refiners take the lowest offers. With TMX’s added capacity, Alberta can ship directly to global buyers like Sinochem and Sinopec in China, as well as U.S. West Coast markets such as California.
This competition for Alberta oil has already narrowed the Western Canadian Select discount from about $19 a barrel in early 2024 to roughly $12 by April. That means more money for producers, more royalties for Alberta, and more tax revenue for Canada.
What this means for a united Canada vs. separation
1. A united Canada delivers big, controversial projects when private capital balks. TMX only happened because the federal government bought the project, financed it, and drove it to completion. That’s a union dividend for Alberta.
2. The economics are national, not provincial. Tolls, interim hearings, and cost-recovery fights are ongoing at the Canada Energy Regulator. But the bottom line is the same: Canadians assumed extraordinary financial risk to unlock world pricing for Alberta oil. That is a country acting in the interest of a province.
3. The next project won’t be easier outside Canada. Reuters and the Financial Times both note how cost, risk, and permitting already scare off private builders - even with Canada’s political weight behind them. Separate, and everything gets harder and slower- no federal ownership, no federal fiscal muscle, and no shared political capital.
4. “But Alberta needs sea access.” Sure—and UNCLOS acknowledges a right of access for landlocked states. In practice, that means negotiating corridors through other governments, at their pace, under their courts, and on their terms. It does not deliver financing, permits, or construction crews.
Canada just did.
The takeaway
TMX is the case study that shreds the separatist story. Ottawa did not block Alberta; it bankrolled Alberta. It did not shut Alberta out; it put Alberta in the room—and paid the bill to keep the project alive when markets quit. The pipeline that finally unlocked tidewater for Alberta oil was proposed privately, but it was approved, bought, completed, and risk-managed by the Government of Canada.
Keep Alberta in Canada, and you keep the political clout, legal tools, and national balance sheet that made TMX real. Leave, and you trade a proven path for a paper “right” that does not build anything.
How much more of a seat at the table does Alberta need when the rest of the country is already picking up the cheque?