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Alberta rejects national strategies
Gary Park For Petroleum News
The Alberta government is not prepared to wrap itself in the Maple Leaf when it comes to endorsing a national energy strategy and the push for a single national securities regulator.
The mere mention of an energy policy is a flashpoint in Alberta, especially for those whose memories stretch back 30 years when a federal program was imposed that brought the province to its knees.
To promote energy self-sufficiency, the Canadian government of 1980 used the vehicle of the state-owned Petro-Canada to promote Canadian ownership of the sector along with frontier exploration and imposed what was seen as double-taxation on the industry.
As a result, U.S.-based companies retreated across the border, thousands of jobs were lost, house prices collapsed and the Alberta government lost an estimated C$50 billion to C$100 billion in revenues.
Energy Minister Ron Liepert needed no prodding in Montreal on Sept. 17 when his provincial counterparts met to discuss the pros and cons of a national strategy, making it clear the wounds from the 1980 program are far from healed.
He said Alberta is open to cooperation on the development of strategies and goals, but wants nothing to do with a federally imposed program.
Newfoundland differs However, Newfoundland Energy Minister Kathy Dunderdale said Canada has no hope of becoming a clean-energy superpower without a national strategy.
“We need a made-in-Canada solution that works for all of us,” she said. “The rest of the world is out in front of us and this is a very pressing issue.”
Liepert argued that natural resources are the major reason why Canada has “weathered and pulled out of the recession quicker than anywhere else in the world.”
Because of a vibrant oil and gas industry that is being responsibly handled in Alberta all of Canada has benefited, he said.
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis took a measured approach, acknowledging that “we have to be careful when we’re talking about a national energy policy. We saw in the past that it also creates friction.”
Securities regulator an issue Tension is also high over the push by Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to create a new national securities regulator to harmonize the separate securities rules in Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories.
Flaherty insists a single regulator would have stronger power to fight fraud and promote more consistent policies on a national basis.
But he said that did not mean regional issues would be shunted aside.
“Resource-based industries like Alberta’s oil sector, which do have huge demands for capital, do have unique needs when compared with other industries that do not need to raise money on a regular basis,” Flaherty said.
“A new Canadian regulatory system needs to reflect this and make things easier for the oil industry to raise capital and not harder than the current system.”
The finance ministers of Alberta (Ted Morton) and Quebec (Raymond Bachand) are united in urging their counterparts to oppose the federal plan, which they say would encroach on their constitutional powers and do little to protect investors.
They want other provinces to ignore the federal deadline of Sept. 30 and wait for the Supreme Court of Canada to pass judgment on the proposed legislation next spring.
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