EDMONTON - Capital Power Corp. has announced agreements to pursue U.S. natural gas power acquisitions and to supply electricity to a data centre developer in Alberta. The Edmonton-based power generator says it has reached a memorandum of understanding with Apollo Funds to form a US$3-billion investment partnership to buy merchant natural gas assets across the United States. Separately, Capital Power says it has entered into a binding MOU to negotiate an electricity supply agreement with an [Read more]

OTTAWA - Half of Canadians are in favour of building a new bitumen pipeline between Alberta and B.C., while fewer than one in five outright oppose it, a new poll suggests. The Leger poll, which was conducted online and can't be assigned a margin of error, suggests support is particularly strong in Alberta and among men, older Canadians and Conservative voters. Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a memorandum of understanding last month with the Alberta government that sets out an agreement [Read more]

OTTAWA - Members of Parliament are set to debate a Conservative motion today that declares support for an oil pipeline to British Columbia's coast. The motion says MPs support construction of a pipeline to carry Alberta bitumen to the coast, along with an "appropriate amendment" to legislation banning most oil tankers off the northern B.C. coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a memorandum of understanding last month with the Alberta government that sets out an agreement to work toward [Read more]

OTTAWA - A federal union says hundreds of workers have been warned they may lose their jobs as the government moves to shrink the size of the public service. The Public Service Alliance of Canada says 219 people at Natural Resources Canada received notices this week saying their jobs might be cut.  Another 109 people at the Public Service Commission of Canada, 92 people at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and 74 staffers at the Department of Finance received similar [Read more]

CALGARY - A group representing oil and gas drillers says it's expecting a slight uptick in activity next year in Canada. The Canadian Association of Energy Contractors says it's expecting 5,709 wells to be drilled next year, up about three per cent from this year. It's expecting roughly the same percentage increase in drilling rig operating days and service rig operating hours. The CAOEC represents 89 land drilling, offshore drilling and service rig companies operating across [Read more]

CALGARY - Analysts at CIBC Capital Markets say they don't expect the private sector to take the lead on a new West Coast oilsands pipeline so long as the British Columbia government and First Nations are opposed. They write in a report that companies would have to rely on meeting the ill-defined constitutional duty to consult with Indigenous groups and untested new federal legislation aimed at speeding along infrastructure projects deemed in the national interest. The Alberta government is [Read more]

CALGARY - Pipeline operator Trans Mountain Corp. says it earned a profit in its latest quarter compared with a loss a year ago as its utilization rate and revenue rose compared with last year. The Crown-owned pipeline company says it earned $127 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of $68 million a year ago. The result came as revenue for the quarter totalled $765 million, up from $666 million. Trans Mountain says it saw record throughput for the quarter at [Read more]