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Petroleum’s political rift Federal, provincial NDP leaders drive wedge into energy debate; attack oil sands, pipelines; blame industry for manufacturing woes Gary Park For Petroleum News
The federal and provincial versions of the left-wing New Democratic Party have been seen as Canada’s social conscience over many decades, occasionally and often only fleetingly holding power in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
In these erratic political times, voters have abandoned traditional parties in droves, giving the NDP unimagined standings in the national polls, although the next Canadian election is three years away, and setting it up to topple British Columbia Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals a year from now.
The result is deep unease within the petroleum industry and the producing provinces to the point where some have renamed the NDP as No Damned Petroleum.
The NDP’s newly installed leader Thomas Mulcair, who comes from Quebec, has wasted no time chastising the industry’s environmental record, accusing Canada and Alberta of acting like Nigeria in failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
He has also aligned with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, leader of the most populous, industrialized province, in attaching the label of Dutch Disease on Canada’s petro-infused currency, which has climbed 55 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past decade.
(The term was coined in 1977 to describe the decline in the Netherlands’ manufacturing sector after the discovery of offshore natural gas in 1959 and now refers to any development which results in a large inflow of foreign currency, undermining the competitiveness of a manufacturing sector.)
Mulcair has complained that the muscular Canadian dollar has “hollowed out the manufacturing sector,” costing 500,000 jobs.
“The Canadian dollar is being held artificially high, which is fine if you’re going to Walt Disney World, but not so good if you want to sell your manufactured goods because the American clients can no longer afford to buy it,” he said.
Challenge to pipeline projects In portraying Western Canada’s increasingly powerful resource sector as bad for Canada’s economic health, Mulcair and the federal NDP are posing a thinly disguised threat to the oil sands, aided and abetted by the British Columbia NDP under Adrian Dix.
The provincial leader has assembled a legal team to explore ways of blocking Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project and Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion of its Trans Mountain system, even though the core approvals are under federal, not provincial jurisdiction.
“Obviously interprovincial pipelines are in federal jurisdiction, but there may be options for the province and we’ll have to consider those,” he said.
He said the lawyers will examine various legalities surrounding the project to export oil sands crude to Asia, including the plan by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to shorten the current environmental review of Northern Gateway, or accelerate approval of the Trans Mountain expansion.
Dix said he wants to know whether the Canadian government is fulfilling a commitment in 2010 to ensure that a federal environmental process would be equivalent to one conducted by a British Columbia government.
He said it is not in the interests of either “the environment or economic development, or First Nations issues,” if the Harper government interferes with the review process.
Oliver: NDP plans ‘unfortunate’ Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, while avoiding a question on whether Dix as premier would have the authority to block Northern Gateway, said both the federal and provincial wings of the NDP are making a mistake in opposing projects that are in Canada’s national interest.
“I think it’s unfortunate that some opposition parties and certain other groups want to stand in the way of responsible resource development, hundreds of thousands of jobs, or billions of dollars of economic activity for this country,” he said.
Amid comments that Mulcair is attempting to divide Canada, rallying Ontario and Quebec to improve the NDP’s chances of winning the next federal election by blaming Western Canada for Central Canada’s misfortunes, the western provincial premiers have been quick to condemn Mulcair’s stand.
“Here is someone who wants to be the national leader, who, for the sake of politics, would risk the economic advantage of Canada,” said Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
Redford: comments ‘divisive’ Alberta Premier Alison Redford, who has been advocating a national energy strategy to build greater cross-Canada cooperation, described Mulcair’s comments as “divisive, ill-informed and false. The fact of the matter is that the energy industry supports jobs right across the country.”
Federal Heritage Minister James Moore, speaking for Harper, said Mulcair “should be ashamed of himself for attacking the West, dividing our country and not even having visited the places he is attacking. It is unconscionable for someone who wants to be prime minister to be so utterly irresponsible.”
Federal Liberal leader Bob Rae, a former NDP premier of Ontario, said Mulcair has failed to demonstrate a deep appreciation of how sensitive the issued he has raised are in a national debate.
“Westerners are very proud, and rightly so, of the fact that Canada’s economy is now developing in their part of the world,” he said.
How chilly the mood has become will be put to the test May 30 and 31 when Mulcair is scheduled to visit Alberta, including an expected stop — his first — at the oil sands.
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