A recent Angus Reid Institute online survey reveals that a significant majority of Québec residents back the development of a coast-to-coast oil and gas pipeline network in Canada contrary to claims made by Premier Francois Legault.
The survey indicates that even 74% of Québec respondents favour expanding domestic energy infrastructure, aligning with the national sentiment where four out of five Canadians (79%) advocate for such projects.
Quebecers, including the current Quebec premier, have historically opposed pipelines connecting Alberta’s vast oil reserves to Canada’s easternmost provinces – with Legault controversially calling Alberta oil “dirty energy” in 2018.
“Regarding other oil pipelines, I want to remind him that there’s no social acceptability” in Quebec for them, Legault said in 2019, a remark he repeated in the legislature under questioning from Québec solidaire’s Manon Massé.
Jean Philippe Fournier, an economist and former advisor to Québec’s first minister of finance, celebrated the polling numbers in an X post on Friday: “Almost 75% of Quebecers agree that it’s time to build more pipelines, per Angus Reid (Thank you Trump).”
“Anyone that tells you there’s no social acceptability in Québec is either an idiot, misinformed or straight up lying,” Fournier’s post continued.
Karen Ogen, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance, echoed Fournier’s enthusiasm for the changing tides of Canadian sentiment.
“I have been doing this work for 10 years and I feel like there’s (been) no audience. Now that this threat of tariffs is upon us, Canada needs to act.”
“The threat of the tariffs is causing Canada, I’m hoping, to wake up,” Ogen said on Tuesday, while speaking at an energy security trade mission in Japan.
This support comes as the nation faces potential trade challenges with the United States, its primary energy export market.
As U.S. President Donald Trump threatens new tariffs, attention has turned to Canada’s oil and gas sector and its reliance on the American market.
Canada still relies on U.S. refineries for the vast majority of its crude oil processing, with Canada importing $19.8 billion in refined petroleum in 2022—more than $15 billion of which came from American suppliers.
Additionally, Canada lacks an east-west pipeline to transport crude oil across the country without first crossing into the United States.
In 2023, the United States accounted for 97 per cent of Canada’s oil and gas exports.
Concerns over potential economic disruptions in trade with the United States are also putting a renewed focus on the trade barriers that exist within Canada itself.
These internal restrictions – ranging from limits on cross-border alcohol sales to province-specific trucking regulations and differing professional licensing requirements – continue to hinder domestic commerce.
A 2019 report from the International Monetary Fund estimated that interprovincial trade barriers effectively function as a 21 per cent tariff on goods and services moving within Canada.
More recently, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business projected that eliminating these barriers could generate an additional $200 billion in economic activity per year.
Public sentiment strongly favours action, with 95 per cent of Canadians supporting efforts to remove interprovincial trade restrictions generally.
