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West, oil get clout Martin’s cabinet appointments bode well for Western Canada, oil industry Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary correspondent
Western Canada and the petroleum industry won more than they lost Dec. 12 when Prime Minister Paul Martin announced his new federal cabinet.
A tenacious, outspoken Newfoundlander, John Efford, landed the natural resources portfolio, ending the two-year tenure of Herb Dhaliwal, who was widely seen as fumbling issues such as Arctic gas development, the Kyoto Protocol and industry taxation.
Larry Bagnell, the Yukon’s sole Member of Parliament, landed the job of parliamentary secretary to newly selected Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell — making them the two key figures in shaping economic development in Canada’s North and handling the regulatory aspects of a Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.
Giving the resource-rich West added clout in cabinet, Martin awarded his two top portfolios to Alberta’s Anne McLellan, who becomes deputy prime minister, and Saskatchewan’s Ralph Goodale, the next finance minister.
The only setback came with the reappointment of Environment Minister David Anderson, an unbending proponent of the Kyoto climate-change treaty and opponent of oil and gas exploration offshore British Columbia. Efford has 14 years in Newfoundland politics Efford surprise elevation to cabinet came only 18 months after he was elected, but his background includes 14 years in the Newfoundland politics, including two terms as the province’s fisheries minister when he battled the Canadian government and environmentalists over shrimp quotas and seal hunting.
In the course of a losing bid for leadership of Newfoundland’s governing Liberal party in 2000 he took issue with then-premier Brian Tobin’s fondness for mega-projects in the resources sector.
“We always seem to be reaching for pie in the sky,” Efford said. “While we have a lot of natural resources ... we’re forgetting about our youth.”
In addition to its offshore oil, which is being produced by the Hibernia and Terra Nova projects with White Rose due on stream in 2006, Newfoundland has also been pressing for a deal to develop its Voisey’s Bay nickel mine and a C$12 billion plan to develop a hydroelectric power scheme in Labrador.
How he will now view development of such large-scale energy projects as the Arctic, Alberta oil sands and East Coast offshore is not clear.
“People have to give me some ... time,” he said, still “overwhelmed” by his appointment. Efford active in bringing different parties together However, Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the industry dealt with Efford when he was Newfoundland fisheries minister.
“He was active in bringing together different parties, fishermen and government, in talking about the offshore,” Alvarez said.
He said the industry is anxious to have someone in the portfolio who will reduce the regulatory burden that has slowed development of the East Coast and to improve Canada-United States relations which were damaged by Dhaliwal, who attacked President George W. Bush’s Iraq policies.
David McInnis, president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, said despite Efford’s defense of fishermen he “wasn’t blind to the benefits of offshore oil.”
McInnis said Efford’s outspoken style will be needed if he is to be a “strong voice” on issues such as Kyoto, which he hopes the Martin government will set aside until it can establish climate change goals that don’t cripple the economy. Cabinet still has pro-Kyoto environmental minister Although Martin has said in recent weeks that he is not yet satisfied that the federal government has a plan to implement Kyoto, Anderson has alienated the oil and gas producing provinces with his zealous promotion of the protocol.
Given Martin’s view that Canada rushed its ratification of Kyoto and now needs a well-understood implementation plan, the Alberta government is hopeful the new prime minister will “exercise some guidance” over Anderson, said Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Halvar Jonson.
Efford could also find himself at odds with Anderson over the environment minister’s decision to require a full environmental review for each offshore well drilled and not by the area involved.
Other issues industry associations would like to see action on are:
• An end to policies established in isolation by regional offices of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
• Development of a long-term, coordinated energy policy that can carry Canada through the next 10 to 20 years.
• A solution to the regulatory overlap among federal departments.
• Lifting an excise tax that the government imposes on offshore rigs brought into Canada, given that Canada has no current ability to build the rigs.
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