Prime Minister Mark Carney says declaring the proposed Pacific Link oil pipeline in the national interest, which starts a one-year clock before construction can begin, proves “Canada is working,” a message aimed at Albertans weighing separation in the Oct. 19 referendum.

“We came together, we looked at an opportunity, and this opportunity is unlocked by Canada as a whole,” Carney said, citing British Columbia’s co-operation as one example.

Ottawa’s backing is also essential, with federally owned Trans Mountain Corp. financing and building the line. It will spend at least $2 billion in federal tax dollars on assessment work before a final investment decision on a project that could cost up to $44 billion.

READ MORE: Feds designate Pacific Link oil pipeline under new approval process

But will it be enough to quell a separatist movement rooted in long-standing frustration over federal energy policy, pipeline delays and the sense that Alberta sends more to Ottawa than it gets back?

“I don’t like that many of our fellow citizens have given up on Canada,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said, citing the latest polling that suggests 22 per cent of Alberta voters could vote Oct. 19 to launch a second, binding referendum on separation.

Smith called the vote, saying the debate is intensifying and needs a resolution one way or the other. Critics have said Smith is just whipping up fringe grievances to placate separatists in her United Conservative Party. Regardless, she says Carney’s move to designate the pipeline is “one example… demonstrating that cooperative federalism can work in action.”

Calgary MP Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary to Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, says the designation will likely boost the federal side but that wasn’t the intention, despite the conspicuous timing.

“When you look at Alberta’s frustrations, they’re not new,” Hogan tells iPolitics, adding that support for leaving Canada has hovered around 20 per cent for as long as Alberta has been a province.

“I just want to put it on the table. It’s not about pipelines, it’s about this sense of respect and making sure that the things that Alberta cares about are also cared about by the country as a whole.”

He said the designation announcement shows Canada cares.

Separatists argue designation doesn’t change anything

Separatist leaders, however, may be interpreting this differently.

“(The separation issue) is much deeper than the pipeline for people like me and the dedicated, independence supporters,” Cory Morgan, an online political commentator and organizer behind the Pathway to Independence separatist group, told the Canadian Press Thursday.

Keith Wilson, co-leader of separatist group Let Alberta Decide, says the pipeline announcement is, ironically, a great example of why it’s time Alberta left Confederation.

He said the project has taken too much time, political capital and governmental resources just to get Alberta’s resources to market.

He said rather than have authority under law to marshal its own natural resources, Alberta was going cap in hand to Carney to avoid lengthy assessments and consultation.

“(Ottawa) created a bypass route where you require the personal blessing of His Majesty Prime Minister Carney and if you get that blessing, which was bestowed upon us here in Alberta today, you may get permission to go to the next step,” Wilson said in an interview Thursday.

Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer for the separatist group Stay Free Alberta, posted to social media Thursday that Alberta should still go its own way, and take the new pipeline – and its billions of dollars in revenue — with it.

“Keep all of the money in Alberta,” Rath wrote.

“Don’t share any of it with Ottawa or any anti-pipeline provinces like Quebec.”

With files from iPolitics’ Marco Vigliotti and the Canadian Press