In Wake of KXL Decision, Canadians Most Likely to Support Building More Infrastructure at Home

Toronto, ON, February 9, 2021 – The results of a new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News suggest Canadians have moved on from the Keystone XL pipeline after new U.S. President Biden cancelled the project as one of his first acts in office. 

Nearly half (44%) would rather see Canada focus on building infrastructure within Canada to transport and refine Canada’s oil and natural gas resources for international markets, closely followed by 38% who feel we should focus on other priorities.  Less than two in ten (18%) feel Canada should continue to press the Biden administration to reverse its Keystone KL decision.

The desire to focus on infrastructure investments at home was especially strong in BC (49%), Alberta (56%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (57%).  However, in Quebec, most respondents (58%) felt that Canada should focus on priorities other than transporting and refining Canadian oil and natural gas for international markets.  Quebecers were also the least likely (13%) to support a continued push on the Biden administration to reverse its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.

The results suggest Canadians believe the priority should be on building domestic capacity at home and have moved on from the decades-long debate over the future of the Keystone XL pipeline.  The poll results also suggest that Canadians do not see continuing to press Keystone XL with the new U.S. administration as a priority.

Even in Alberta – the heartland of Canada’s oil and natural gas industry, where the Kenney government recently invested over $1 billion in KXL- respondents want Canada to move on.  Just 21% of Albertans believe that Canada should continue to press the Biden administration to reverse its decision on Keystone XL. 

A focus on building domestic capacity was particularly strong among Boomers (50%), while Generation Z was most likely to say they wanted Canada to focus on other priorities (51%).

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between February 2-3, 2021, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Darrell Bricker
CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2001
[email protected]

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