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With a friend like this … Canada’s socialist leader gets respect on 1st oil sands visit; holds onto positions Gary Park For Petroleum News
There was talk of rolling out the black carpet May 31 to welcome Thomas Mulcair to Alberta.
A symbolic link to the tarry bitumen that makes up the province’s oil sands deposits. Naturally.
Certainly nothing insulting. Never.
In fact, the leader of Canada’s federal New Democratic Party got no less than a polite reception from political and industry leaders, as befitting the cowboy culture of the west.
The hosts somehow managed to restrain themselves in the company of the man who, if an election was held today and not as scheduled in three years, could lead his socialist party into government.
But a few barbs were tossed in his direction from off-stage.
Mulcair talked about his own version of “shock and awe” on his whirlwind tour of the vast northern Alberta muskeg country and did attempt to strike a more conciliatory tone with the industry and the Alberta government.
During a morning oil sands flyover in a helicopter and at later meetings, he admitted to being impressed by the “awe-inspiring” scope of the industrial development.
“These are extraordinary undertakings on a human scale. They’re massive,” he said, then quickly moved to his core message that the bitumen extraction poses “real challenges that, if we don’t assume in this generation, we’re going to bear in future generations.”
‘Sustainable’ exploitation call He again called for a focus on “sustainable” exploitation of the resource that includes tougher enforcement of federal legislation to protect waterways, endangered species, fisheries and First Nations, and — in the most inflammatory proposal for the industry — called for a carbon tax on greenhouse gases to make polluters pay.
Mulcair argued that until the environmental costs are “internalized” the industry is enjoying a free ride that has attracted U.S. investment and strengthened the Canadian dollar, repeating his line that unchecked development of the oil sands is costing thousands of jobs in other sectors.
But he did support the call by Alberta Premier Alison Redford for a national debate leading to a Canada-wide energy policy.
‘Old style politics’ Alberta Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk was unimpressed in his meeting with Mulcair and accused the NDP leader of playing “old style politics” of pitting region against region.
He said Mulcair’s understanding of Alberta’s economic impact on the rest of Canada demonstrated little understanding of the positive contributions to jobs and government revenues.
Danielle Smith, leader of Alberta’s opposition Wildrose Party, saw no reason to cozy up to Mulcair, rating him as “Alberta’s number one enemy.”
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Mulcair’s “real agenda” is to introduce a carbon tax, stop oil sands development and put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.
“The whole tenor of the conversation has been about dividing the nation and name-calling,” said Ken Chapman, executive director of the industry-financed Oil Sands Developers Group.
“The oil sands need people to be informed in a knowledgeable way.”
Polls reflect polarization The latest national polls have reflected Mulcair’s polarizing approach, with a Harris-Decima survey finding that 45 percent of Canadians disagreed with Mulcair and 41 percent agreed, with a heavy tilt towards him in Quebec and British Columbia.
Faced with these shifting trends, the premiers of the oil-producing provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, along with the leaders of the three northern territories, signed on May 29 to seek a national energy strategy to counter the fast-spreading opposition to their hopes of building “an economic powerhouse for Canada” out of the west’s oil and natural gas riches.
Redford told a news conference wrapping up the premiers’ annual conference the objective is a set of “principles for inter-provincial cooperation (and) the ability to develop sustainable energy.”
The leaders also said their broader objective is to ensure Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in “sustainable and secure energy production.”
The next stage in the push for a national strategy will occur July 25-27 when Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial leaders meet in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Conflicting reports However, the challenge facing the desire for a national consensus on energy was underscored May 30 when two independent think tanks — partly in response to Mulcair’s stance — issued conflicting reports on the regional tensions and economic disparities created by an oil-fueled economy.
Economists at the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a conservative research organization, dismissed claims that a booming resource sector will raise the export cost of manufactured goods.
They said “petroleum-rich provinces have become the new ‘export markets’ for the rest of the country” and the benefits are “both substantial and surprisingly broadly distributed nationally.”
The report estimated that if TransCanada’s Keystone and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipelines go ahead, the economic output over 25 years would total C$64.9 billion and create 882,000 person-years of additional employment in Ontario, while pumping C$28.8 billion into British Columbia and C$14.1 billion into Quebec.
The Alberta-based Pembina Institute warned, however, that “oil sands fever, a strain that is creating clear winners and losers in the Canadian economy, could pose significant risk to Canada’s competitiveness in the emerging clean energy economy.”
Cracks in hopes But hopes of a united front in Western Canada showed cracks even before the premiers’ conference when British Columbia Premier Christy Clark opted out of the meeting.
She said her presence was required at home to deal with provincial budget estimates, but it fueled speculation that she wanted to avoid a clash with Redford over proposed bitumen pipelines — Enbridge’s 525,000 barrels per day Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan’s expansion of its Trans Mountain system to 750,000 bpd from 300,000 bpd — from the Alberta oil sands to the British Columbia coast to open markets in Asia.
The two projects have attracted mounting opposition from First Nations, municipal governments, landowners and environmentalists, while Clark, who faces an election in 12 months, has refused to align herself with the Canadian and Alberta governments, who insist the pipelines are a vital source of revenue and jobs.
She has repeatedly declined to take a stand until Canada’s National Energy Board rules on the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain applications, promising that British Columbia would then hold a debate “based on the facts.”
However, Clark has endorsed the completion by 2020 of at least three LNG projects which would rely heavily for their feedstock on British Columbia’s stranded northern shale gas deposits.
She gave qualified support for a national energy strategy when speaking to reporters at British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria May 29.
“I think we should be coordinated among provinces,” Clark said, noting that under Canada’s Constitution the provinces own and control development of their natural resources.
“But I want to be cautious about any national strategy that’s going to mean the federal government is really monkeying around in provincial jurisdiction,” she said.
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