Canada and British Columbia agree to maintain northwest coast oil tanker ban

But British Columbia Premier David Eby on Thursday appeared to open the door to a pipeline going through his province, as long as the tanker ban remains in place and the northwest coast is protected.

"This agreement doesn't require us to support any pipeline proposal from Alberta, however, as I've said before, we recognize our constitutional position, and we do not have the authority to stop a new pipeline. We will not be going to court to fight a pipeline project," Eby told reporters.

Smith is expected to unveil her province's crude oil pipeline proposal at 20:00 EDT (00:00 GMT). The proposal does not yet have a private-sector proponent. The federal government also pledged to accelerate the building of new liquefied natural gas projects in BC to triple LNG production in the next decade.

(Reporting by Maria Cheng in Ottawa, Amanda Stephenson in Calgary and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Paul Simao)