Alberta
MB/SK/AB NeeStaNan Utilities Corridor: First Nations-led utility corridor is a 21st-century nation-building initiative

Port Nelson is 300 kilometres south of Churchill and has a longer ice-free season. In fact, a concrete jetty constructed (and never used) at Port Nelson nearly a hundred years ago remains in place.
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Terry Etam
“The trading of goods has been in our DNA as Indigenous People for centuries, but somewhere along the way this was lost. It’s time to regain our prosperity, for the betterment of our communities and for our country.” – NeeStaNan website
Ever feel like you’re being neglected by either governments or the various power centers that dominate life? The big places get all the attention, have all the votes, have all the buzz. In Canada, fewer than ten such centers dominate the country. If you’re not in one of those, you won’t know much political power, there won’t be much clout, there won’t be much of anything.
And if you want to know how far you can get from a circle of influence, consider Census Division No. 23, a great big administrative district in northern Manitoba. The size and ruggedness are mindboggling; No. 23 encompasses an area of 233,578 square km/90,185 square miles, six times the area of Switzerland, yet the region’s total population is 4,690. The population density, rounded to the nearest person-per-square km, is zero. If you round it to the nearest tenth of a square km, it is still zero.
It is extremely hard for people of regions like this to register on the national radar for any number of reasons, some of which are just logistical (remote location) and some of which are just rude realities (not much political capital up for grabs in No. 23).29dk2902l
The people of regions like this tend to be absent from all sorts of things, including resource development, even if it happens in these regions. Yes, there will be some local employment, and positive economic spinoffs, but nothing in the way of meaningful ownership or control.
But that may be about to change, for a significant swath of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the northeastern part of Alberta. Underway is the NeeStaNan utility corridor, stretching from northern Alberta through north-central Saskatchewan and on to the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba.
The significance of this corridor could be profound. It will provide tidewater access for landlocked western Canadian resources that otherwise need to travel to the west coast, or other less efficient routes. As one of the best examples, Saskatchewan must move potash to market via Vancouver, meaning a trip through the Rocky Mountains and on to the coast.
By utilizing the NeeStaNan utility corridor, potash will be able to move to large markets like Brazil far more efficiently. The distance to seawater via Hudson Bay is 630 km/390 miles less than by going through BC ports, and here’s the real economic kicker: the sea route to Brazil’s market is actually 3,800 km less than current routes. That’s almost 2,400 miles, for American friends and for old times’ sake.
The corridor is planned to enter Hudson Bay not at Churchill, but at a much more direct and accessible point called Port Nelson. Port Nelson is some 300 kilometres/180 miles south of Churchill (Hudson Bay is really freaking big) and has a longer ice-free season. In fact, a concrete jetty constructed (and never used) at Port Nelson nearly a hundred years ago remains in place. Port Nelson isn’t a new idea.
The utility corridor isn’t simply a project to enhance the wellbeing of the FN bands along the way, although it will most certainly do that. It is also far more grand in scope: the utility corridor will help Canada’s heartland deliver industrial products to global markets in a more efficient way, and provide the sort of efficiencies that can help multiple Canadian industries enhance global competitiveness, all the while providing an economic boost that is infinitely better than what locals and First Nations along the way have ever known.
Many industries could benefit, including the oil and gas sector, and I’m going to say that now before any legislation passes that makes it illegal. There is potential to utilize the corridor to move rail cargoes, pipelines, lumber, agricultural products, raw materials, manufactured goods… an endless array of the stuff that makes Canada wealthy.
The project is enormously captivating right from its very name. “NeeStaNan” translates as “all of us”. How cool is that; inclusiveness not under the guise some overwrought mandate, but in the sense that the project is being structured to benefit a great number of parties. The home page of the NeeStaNan website describes the project as a utility corridor “uniting Canadians”. Now, doesn’t that phrase sound far more powerful coming from the heartland, from people with skin in the game, as opposed to insincere platitudes thrown about like confetti on the campaign trail?
The utility corridor really could unite Canadians; it is a slingshot of vitality into Canada’s industrial base. It could benefit many critical industries, and open up new trade possibilities. It is a project designed to bring in many First Nations along the route that have very little to show for Canada’s development. It’s not a handout, it’s the opposite – a benefit to Canada and a great many Canadians.
Isn’t this what First Nations Self Determination should be about? Isn’t this a perfect dovetail with the interests of the people who live in these remote areas, who are the only ones there, and who deserve a say in how it is developed? Isn’t it amazing that it is a collaborative effort that by design will benefit industries that these First Nations have no direct stake in?
Isn’t it the best possible goal and achievement of all the efforts to bring First Nations fully into the Canadian matrix on a way that works for everyone, and that benefits everyone?
And who would be better than First Nations along the corridor’s path as the stewards of the corridor itself? Who knows the terrain better? I’ve been there, I grew up not in the path of the corridor but I could see it from a north facing window, and I’ll tell you it’s not territory for the faint of heart. Winters are brutal and long, summers are hot and buggy, and nature is relentless. Local expertise and wisdom would be invaluable.
I can’t really think of an infrastructure project of the past fifty years that could have such multi-dimensional benefits to so many Canadians. It is uplifting to see collaboration across many First Nations and the governments of three provinces. Ottawa may not like it, because the corridor is sure to empower an area of the country that has few votes to harvest, but that is all the more reason to get behind and support the project’s owners, organizers, and operators.
The NeeStaNan utility corridor might do more for a forgotten region of Canada, and its First Nations, than 150 years of federal government “help”. Let’s hope all three prairie provinces and the First Nations along the way bring the corridor into life and to its full potential.
Terry Etam is a columnist with the BOE Report, a leading energy industry newsletter based in Calgary. He is the author of The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity. You can watch his Policy on the Frontier session from May 5, 2022 here.
Alberta
The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors
CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?
Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.
We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.
There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.
CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?
Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.
The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.
CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?
Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.
We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.
CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?
Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.
We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.
2025 Federal Election
Next federal government should recognize Alberta’s important role in the federation

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
With the tariff war continuing and the federal election underway, Canadians should understand what the last federal government seemingly did not—a strong Alberta makes for a stronger Canada.
And yet, current federal policies disproportionately and negatively impact the province. The list includes Bill C-69 (which imposes complex, uncertain and onerous review requirements on major energy projects), Bill C-48 (which bans large oil tankers off British Columbia’s northern coast and limits access to Asian markets), an arbitrary cap on oil and gas emissions, numerous other “net-zero” targets, and so on.
Meanwhile, Albertans contribute significantly more to federal revenues and national programs than they receive back in spending on transfers and programs including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) because Alberta has relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes and a younger population.
For instance, since 1976 Alberta’s employment rate (the number of employed people as a share of the population 15 years of age and over) has averaged 67.4 per cent compared to 59.7 per cent in the rest of Canada, and annual market income (including employment and investment income) has exceeded that in the other provinces by $10,918 (on average).
As a result, Alberta’s total net contribution to federal finances (total federal taxes and payments paid by Albertans minus federal money spent or transferred to Albertans) was $244.6 billion from 2007 to 2022—more than five times as much as the net contribution from British Columbians or Ontarians. That’s a massive outsized contribution given Alberta’s population, which is smaller than B.C. and much smaller than Ontario.
Albertans’ net contribution to the CPP is particularly significant. From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 per cent (on average) of total CPP payments paid to retirees in Canada while retirees in the province received only 10.0 per cent of the payments. Albertans made a cumulative net contribution to the CPP (the difference between total CPP contributions made by Albertans and CPP benefits paid to retirees in Alberta) of $53.6 billion over the period—approximately six times greater than the net contribution of B.C., the only other net contributing province to the CPP. Indeed, only two of the nine provinces that participate in the CPP contribute more in payroll taxes to the program than their residents receive back in benefits.
So what would happen if Alberta withdrew from the CPP?
For starters, the basic CPP contribution rate of 9.9 per cent (typically deducted from our paycheques) for Canadians outside Alberta (excluding Quebec) would have to increase for the program to remain sustainable. For a new standalone plan in Alberta, the rate would likely be lower, with estimates ranging from 5.85 per cent to 8.2 per cent. In other words, based on these estimates, if Alberta withdrew from the CPP, Alberta workers could receive the same retirement benefits but at a lower cost (i.e. lower payroll tax) than other Canadians while the payroll tax would have to increase for the rest of the country while the benefits remained the same.
Finally, despite any claims to the contrary, according to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s demographic advantage, which fuels its outsized contribution to the CPP, will only widen in the years ahead. Alberta will likely maintain relatively high employment rates and continue to welcome workers from across Canada and around the world. And considering Alberta recorded the highest average inflation-adjusted economic growth in Canada since 1981, with Albertans’ inflation-adjusted market income exceeding the average of the other provinces every year since 1971, Albertans will likely continue to pay an outsized portion for the CPP. Of course, the idea for Alberta to withdraw from the CPP and create its own provincial plan isn’t new. In 2001, several notable public figures, including Stephen Harper, wrote the famous Alberta “firewall” letter suggesting the province should take control of its future after being marginalized by the federal government.
The next federal government—whoever that may be—should understand Alberta’s crucial role in the federation. For a stronger Canada, especially during uncertain times, Ottawa should support a strong Alberta including its energy industry.
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