Smith Says No to Crown Gas Pipelines as Prairie AI Race Turns Up the Pressure

Premier Danielle Smith has ruled out building Crown-owned natural gas pipelines, even as her government pushes harder for more capacity to feed Alberta’s AI data-centre ambitions. On her weekend radio show, Smith said the “short answer” on Crown pipelines was no, arguing Alberta relies on the private sector — while naming TC Energy’s “monopoly” as the problem and pointing to talks with firms such as ATCO and Pembina.

The pressure is real. A leaked Energy and Minerals cabinet report, published by The Narwhal, said talks with TC Energy since 2024 had produced “no viable solutions” and floated more escalatory options, including new Crown entities and a possible push to shift NGTL regulation. The memo warned the NGTL system is fully subscribed into 2029, with no capacity confirmed beyond 2030, and sketched pipeline costs that could run into the billions. Smith’s office has since stressed that internal materials are not government decisions, while still signalling Alberta wants more competition on the wire.

That prairie scramble is already visible next door. In March, Bell announced a 300-megawatt AI data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood outside Regina — about $1.7 billion in Bell capital, with first halls targeted for the first half of 2027. On Sept. 14, Bell and Saskatchewan signed a non-binding MOU for up to 900 megawatts of additional capacity, taking the hub toward 1.2 gigawatts, with the extra power expected to come from partner-built natural gas generation rather than the grid alone.

For Calgary readers, the local echo is projects such as Beacon AI’s proposed Indus gas-and-data complex southeast of the city, which has already run into NGTL open-season limits. The Bell Saskatchewan build shows how fast the region is locking AI growth to dedicated gas power — the same bottleneck Alberta is now trying to break without creating a Crown pipeline company.