Canadian provinces Ontario and Alberta are proposing a new pipeline that would carry oil east from the country's western producers.

According to the Associated Press, the pipeline would run more than 2,000 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, to Sarnia, Ontario, while carrying as many as 500,000 barrels of oil daily, with the potential to boost that capacity to 800,000 barrels. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said that pipeline could also eventually extend all the way to Canada's Atlantic coast, which would allow for more oil exports to Europe.

In a post to social media, Ontario Minister of Energy Stephen Lecce noted that half of all oil imports into Ontario currently run through a pipeline that cuts through the U.S.

“It is clear we need a sovereign pipeline route that connects Alberta crude oil to Sarnia — the country’s largest refinery and petrochemical hub," Lecce said.

Although the U.S. is the largest importer of Canadian crude oil in the world, growing tensions between the two nations have forced Canada's leaders to chart an economic path forward that relies less on trade with the United States. To wit, in a video address on April 19, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the country's ties to the U.S. as a weakness that must be corrected, while pledging to strengthen domestic trade corridors, expand ties with new trading partners and reduce Canada's long-standing dependence on the U.S. economy.

Building a whole new pipeline that spans the width of Canada also still faces several hurdles. Such a project would still require substantial financing, and would need to go through a series of approvals, as well as consultations with Indigenous populations. As the AP points out, a similar project was scrapped in 2017 following a wave of political and regulatory opposition.