Alberta’s freshly minted Premier Alison Redford has taken only six weeks to put her province on a new energy path, decisively breaking with the province’s reputation for inflexibility that has been built over recent decades by her predecessors.
During a week-long national and international debut, she made stops in Washington, D.C., New York, Ottawa and Toronto, quickly displaying a progressive, consensus-building style as she seeks to turn Alberta’s hopes of becoming an energy powerhouse into reality.
What was originally planned as her chance to “tell Alberta’s story” — in other words to put the oil sands in a different perspective by explaining her government`s broader energy policy and its record of environmental stewardship — was sideswiped on Nov. 10 when the Obama administration announced that approval of TransCanada’s XL pipeline would be delayed until 2013, potentially scuttling the project.
Redford took that in her stride in what turned out to be even more significant meetings with U.S. State Department officials, congressmen, senators and House Speaker John Boehner, along with Canadian political leaders.
She acknowledged Alberta “can’t shy away from criticism and disagreement (because) we often speak past each other and refuse to engage with those who see things differently.”
But one of her first jobs was to put a softer edge on what was seen as a thinly veiled threat by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to shift Canada`s oil export focus from the U.S. to Asia.
“For the prime minister to say we have options in Canada is simply a factual statement,” Redford told a media briefing. “It’s simply a matter of saying we will continue to be a country that exports resources.”
At a later meeting with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, a frequent critic of the oil sands, she said Canada’s economic success is “dependent on exports and the prosperity they bring, but the U.S. demand (for oil) is declining.”
“Asia’s star is rising and it will dominate the 21st Century. We can guarantee national prosperity for a long time to come by supplying them with the energy they need,” she said.
“The reality is that Canada and Alberta will build markets and we will go where there are markets that are available to us. I don’t think we’re looking at an either/or, and I never thought we were.”
However, she did suggest the Obama administration’s decision to stall on Keystone XL might accelerate the process of seeking out new customers for Alberta crude.
In Washington, Redford said it was not her job to lobby for XL, although she met with some senators who are opposed to the project.
“We are going to be very bold about what is going on with our environmental policy in Alberta. I’m not afraid to have that discussion,” she said. “I have not sought out meetings with political leaders who are opposed (to XL) for the purpose of trying to convince them that they should be supportive.”
But she said it was “not the time” to abandon XL and shift support to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, or any other options, arguing it made the most sense for Alberta to “pursue all options simultaneously.”
Redford said it was “naïve” of critics to suggest she should have been in the U.S. earlier to advocate for XL.
“This is a process that must take place in the United States,” she said. “It would not have been appropriate for the government of Alberta to be lobbying in that process.”
In her efforts to build support in Eastern Canada for a strategy that pulls together the oil sands, the hydro power of British Columbia, offshore oil in Atlantic and McGuinty’s green agenda, she said all 10 provinces and three territories “must contribute to making this country a global energy leader.”
“If we truly want to be a global energy leader, technology champion and environmental citizen, we have to reduce our market dependence on the United States,” she told the Economic Club of Canada.
Observers believe that an alliance of wealthy Alberta and Ontario, which accounts for 38 percent of Canada’s 34 million population, would be a formidable step towards building an energy superpower.
David Taras, a political scientist at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, said Redford is publicly “reaching out like few recent Alberta premiers,” showing she “knows the importance of bridge-building and having allies. She’s someone who sees the long-run.”
But she displayed a tougher edge as well, taking on opposition members of Parliament from the New Democratic Party who have lobbied U.S. lawmakers to block XL.
She said it was not appropriate to meddle in a U.S. domestic process and become “political activists in advising U.S. decision-makers.”
—Gary Park
