Canadian energy executives are pretty much all in on building a west-to-east pipeline, suggests a new survey.

The poll by KPMG LLP of 151 energy and natural resources executives found 87 per cent think “it’s time to build a west-to-east pipeline to reduce reliance on moving Canadian oil and gas to the United States.” A similar share said the moment calls for more pipelines and infrastructure from oil and gas regions to diversify energy export markets.

“Specifically, what the survey results suggest is that there’s an opportunity here, that major projects and infrastructure development are going to be key components to mitigating some of the economic impacts of U.S. trade policy,” Zach Parston, a partner and the Prairies leader in KPMG’s major project advisory services practice, said.

He said the open letter released by oilpatch leaders last week suggested the energy sector could be open to an “ambitious” idea such as an infrastructure corridor.

The letter, issued March 19, called on the federal government to declare an energy crisis and designate key projects in the “national interest” in order to speed up the expansion of oil and natural gas infrastructure.

“They issued a public letter and that to me suggests that they see an opportunity to think differently as a country around major infrastructure development,” Parston said.

KPMG said the survey’s results make the case for Canada to create a national “utility corridor” or a “dedicated, streamlined pathway for the energy, electricity, decarbonization, transportation and digital infrastructure” that would feature pre-approved industrial zones and reduce the red tape and approval times to construct refineries, mines and northern ports.

The corridor would include the “harmonization and simplification of regulatory processes” across provincial lines.

KPMG noted Germany passed the LNG Acceleration Law to speed up the construction of its first liquefied natural gas terminal in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The law compressed the approval process to one year from six to nine years, it said.

But Parston said stringing together a right-of-way passage across a country the size of Canada is a much bigger undertaking.

“There would have to be a level of commitment, creativity and urgency that we haven’t seen before, absolutely,” he said. “But, again, the moment caused by these tariffs allows us that opportunity to think differently, to challenge norms and to take bold action to strengthen our economy and our competitiveness.”

Recent polls say Canadians have had a change of heart when it comes to pipeline projects.

For example, an Angus Reid poll in early February said two-thirds of Canadians indicated they would support the revival of Energy East — a pipeline that would have carried oil from Western Canada to New Brunswick and Quebec. The project was rejected by the federal government in 2017. In 2019, 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed supported Energy East, Angus Reid said.

The KPMG survey also said energy and natural resources companies appear to be better placed to survive a prolonged tariff war, with 80 per cent indicating their business could survive a trade war that lasted more than one year compared with 67 per cent in an earlier wider survey of 600-plus CEOs by KPMG.

But 18 per cent of energy and resource companies said they would suffer “significant profit losses” and two per cent said they would not survive.

Although Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has argued against retaliation, 86 per cent of energy and natural resource leaders indicated they are strongly in favour of hitting back at American tariffs.

Furthermore, 90 per cent of them supported the elimination of interprovincial barriers, with 42 per cent saying it would “save their company,” while 48 per cent said it would open other markets.

• Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com

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