The time of stating the obvious is over. That is, Alberta’s energy industry is the biggest part of Canada’s energy industry and a major component of its economy. It is struggling against major international forces beyond its control in the Middle East, in the halls of Washington, latte bars of Toronto, on the streets of London and in the living rooms of Beverly Hills. And in turn, all Albertans, as stewards of the vast resource, are also suffering and need a bit of help from the rest of Canada to get us all out of this economic quagmire.
The best way to do this in the immediate future, is to build pipelines to get the Albertan, and ultimately Canadian, cash cow to market in a responsible way. In other words, environmentally safe pipelines to tidewater. By all news accounts, that is the message Premier Rachel Notley – an extremely unlikely oilpatch warrior these days we must note – took to Canada’s federal cabinet in Kananaskis this week.
Judging from a response that sounded tepid at best and glib at worst from federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, our province can only assume the ruling Liberals were not tremendously interested in what she had to say. Asked what he learned, he said: “That Alberta is going through a tough time, (that) access to market is important.”
Thanks for the insight, Jim. What Albertans and our oilpatch need to hear is that the Liberals will do everything in their power to speed the pipeline process to both coasts. Instead, Carr told the Globe and Mail that pipeline approval “is not under our control” and that “there is a very clear way forward.” Clear, really? When was the last time a major pipeline was approved?
The Liberal government has been criticized for not being more direct in its support nor for helping to speed the approval process, in any of the proposed major pipelines to either the east or west coasts. Even former prime minister Brian Mulroney has stepped into the fray accusing the Liberals of allowing regulatory reviews to expand without boundaries.
“By arbitrarily extending the scope, time and expense of the regulatory reviews, the government is actually injecting more uncertainty into the process and undermining the credibility of the regulatory institutions charged with that responsibility,” Mulroney told the Business Council of Canada.
To help meet the needs of our energy industry, a federal government does not have to be its “cheerleader,” a politically-charged word used by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, likely in reference to his Conservative predecessor. But being the “responsible mediator,” as he calls himself, is simply not to sit back and watch our industry wither through bureaucratic inaction and delay. As the leader of Canada, we all know there is nothing he can do about international oil prices, but there is much he and his cabinet should be doing within these borders. Let’s hope someone in the room heard Notley’s words.
