Clock ticks on Canada's pipeline debate

The oil sands need new outlets to grow. Will it get them?

US President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline in November 2015 shifted the oil sands pipeline debate from Washington DC back north of the border. With KXL seemingly off the table, pipeline proponents have looked west, east and even through the Arctic north for an outlet for the land-locked oil sands. It has sparked a debate across Canada no less contentious than the highly polarising KXL fight was in the US. The dividing lines are stark and entrenched. Advocates argue the economic benefits of allowing oil sands crude to flow to overseas markets. That access would lesson crippling price differentials that have seen Canadian crudes trade at steep discounts to global benchma