Just over eleven months after appearing alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at the initial signing ceremony for the landmark Canada – Alberta Memorandum of Understanding, Prime Minister Mark Carney is back in his home province today — this time, in Fort MacMurray, where, alongside Smith, he’s expected to formally confirm that the proposed West Coast pipeline at the core of that agreement “will be designated as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act,” as Canadian Press reports. (9 a.m. MT)

“It would be the first project to receive the designation since Ottawa passed Bill C5, (which) gives Ottawa the power to issue special conditions for projects covering a dozen federal laws in order to help them to proceed, more than a year ago,” the wire service notes.

“In August, Ottawa posted in the Canada Gazette that it intended to move ahead with the national interest designation, (and) said Indigenous consultation was already underway. Energy Minister Tim Hodgson told the Globe and Mail earlier this week he expects the Major Projects Office to complete its work on time, allowing the project to receive the designation.”

Although the prime minister’s itinerary states only that he will “announce the next step to accelerate a major infrastructure project,” an accompanying media advisory notes that senior departmental officials will hold an “embargoed background media technical briefing” on what it calls the “West Coast Oil Pipeline process” in Ottawa later this morning. (10 a.m.)

Elsewhere on the ministerial circuit:

• Justice Minister Sean Fraser, whose portfolio also includes the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, drops by Central Bedeque-based PEI Bag Co. to outline — alongside local Liberal MP Bobby Morrissey — new federal support to “help businesses across Prince Edward Island respond to tariff pressures (and) trade disruptions.” (1:30 p.m. AT)
• In neighbouring New Brunswick, Secretary of State for the Canada Revenue Agency Wayne Long visits an unnamed Saint John company to “highlight recent government changes to Canada’s business tax system,” particularly the Productivity Mega Deduction, which “will help businesses invest, grow and create jobs in Canada.” (10:30 a.m. AT)
• Two additional Team Carney front benchers — Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree — are also on deck to promote the new deduction during separate events in Cambridge (10:30 a.m.) and Stoney Creek (1 p.m.), respectively.
• Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson teams up with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Build Canada Homes CEO Ana Bailão, University of Health Network Foundation CEO Julie Quenneville, UHN Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine executive director Andrew Boozary, CreateTO CEO Vic Gupta and Toronto-area Liberal MP Kareem Bardeesy, to deliver what the advisory is billing as a “social medicine housing announcement.” (1 p.m.)
• Women and Gender Equality Minister Rechie Valdez delivers fresh federal funding earmarked to support “victims and survivors of gender-based violence in rural, remote and underserved communities” during a morning event at Tuco’s Taco Lounge in Sudbury. (9 a.m.)
• Rounding out the roster, Defence Minister David McGuinty heads to Iceland for two days of closed-door discussions on “shared defence and security” with what the advisory describes as his “counterparts from Joint Expeditionary Force Defence participating countries.”

Back in the precinct, several Senate committees are slated to continue going through the fine print of the “contents” of Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s latest bid to roll out measures outlined in last year’s budget, which was introduced in May and is still working its way through the House of Commons, but is already under preliminary review at AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, BANKING, COMMERCE AND THE ECONOMY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT and LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS.

Meanwhile, the mayors of Gatineau, Chelsea and La Pêche, as well as local environmental and conservation advocates, are on the witness list at ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES as senators study Sen. Rosa Galvez’s backbench proposal to boost environmental and legal protections for Gatineau Park. (8 a.m.)

Also on the radar: The Parliamentary Budget Office releases a new “cost analysis” of the proposed new high-speed rail service between Quebec City and Toronto, which, according to the notice, was prepared at the request of the Senate NAYIONAL FINANCE committee using “global data.” (9 a.m.)

ON AND AROUND THE HILL

Representatives of the Fédération des Communautés francophones et acadiennes and Réseau pour le développement de l’alphabétisme et des compétences hit the West Block press theatre to “sound the alarm” over what the advisory contends is a lack of equitable access to federal skills development training, as outlined in a newly filed complained to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. (10 a.m.)

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