Statement by Emily Hunter, Senior Program Manager, Ontario Climate, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – It is darkly ironic that on a day when wildfire smoke turned Ontario’s sky orange and Toronto ranked among the worst cities in the world for air quality, the Ontario government chose to make a sales pitch for more oil refining and a massive new pipeline. It’s clear that the provincial government is completely out of touch with the climate crisis unfolding outside our windows.

Today’s announcement for Sarnia’s refinery expansion made only one thing clear: the Northern Shield pipeline is a political sales pitch, not a viable project. Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce announced no funding, no private-sector proponent, no committed customers and no refinery-expansion agreement—and provided no evidence it would lower gasoline prices.

This pipeline and refinery concept is a vision conjured from thin air, untethered to any substantive rationale. Instead of proving there is a market for its ill-conceived pipeline plan, the government is proposing new refineries, storage and export infrastructure in an attempt to manufacture a case for support. But this doubling down looks more like double vision from a province desperately thirsting for a taste of the pipeline action centred in Western Canada.

The Northern Shield pipeline has been criticized as a “fantasy,” but the damage required to make it real would be anything but imaginary. Expanding Sarnia’s refineries would increase climate-warming emissions and release more toxic air pollution—including benzene, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter—across southwestern Ontario. It would add to the pollution burden facing local communities while fuelling the climate conditions that make dangerous wildfire-smoke days like today more frequent and severe. Making days like today all the more common.

Background

  • Ontario announced a “vision” to expand oil refining and processing in Sarnia, develop additional petroleum-storage capacity and explore a strategic petroleum reserve. No specific refinery project, funding commitment, participating company, capacity target or construction timeline was announced.
  • Northern Shield would carry crude oil approximately 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alberta, to Sarnia with an initial capacity of 500,000 barrels per day and potential expansion to 800,000 barrels per day.
  • According to the Canadian Energy Regulator, only 22.5 per cent of the crude processed by Ontario refineries in 2025 was imported from outside Canada. Most already came from Canadian sources, although some existing pipeline routes pass through the United States.
  • While the government presents Northern Shield and refinery expansion as domestic energy-security measures, it has also identified pipeline extensions, new tidewater access and foreign export markets as objectives.
  • No total cost, financing model, private-sector proponent has been disclosed. Consultation with affected Indigenous Nations is only beginning, even though the government has already announced a preferred route.
  • The proposed pipeline would cut from Alberta to Sarnia through the lake-rich Canadian Shield, potentially affecting Muskoka, the Niagara Escarpment and Bruce Trail corridor, and southern Ontario farmland.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Tamara Latinovic, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca