Approval in July, Shovel in October. | ICBA Coffee & Construction #41

Two thousand jobs. $2.9 billion. And a shovel in the ground. ATCO broke ground on the Yellowhead Pipeline this week — approved by the regulator in July, fully booked by customers before the paperwork was done, in service by late 2027. That's what getting to yes looks like. Meanwhile Alberta's top court just told Ottawa, for the second time, that its project-review law is unconstitutional.

Episode 41 of ICBA Coffee & Construction — the news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta, with ICBA's Jordan Bateman. On today's show:

☕ THE BIG ONE: ATCO breaks ground on the $2.9-BILLION Yellowhead Pipeline — 235 km from Peers to Fort Saskatchewan, 1.1 billion cubic feet a day, 2,000 construction jobs, and a pipe that was full before the regulator finished.

⚖️ Alberta's Court of Appeal rules 4–1 that the federal Impact Assessment Act is STILL unconstitutional. ICBA was an intervener the first time this law went to the Supreme Court in 2023. Same court. Same answer.

🛢️ Pacific Link: 77 per cent of oilpatch firms and investors expect a yes — but only 24 per cent expect construction next year. Ottawa's target is September 1, 2027. The gap has a name. Certainty.

🗳️ BC Votes: the three leaders pitch the Board of Trade — PST off machinery and a 120-day clock on $250-million-plus projects, a shipyard with no site and no price, and tonight's one televised debate. Listen for one word: permit.

🖥️ Enerflex lands a gigawatt-plus data-centre power contract, and Alberta's technology minister says $100 BILLION in data-centre investment is coming within five years.

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