B.C.’s CHRISTY CLARK LAUNCHES ANOTHER HIGH-SEAS SHAKEDOWN
Late in her B.C. re-election campaign, Christy Clark is acting more like a pirate than a premier.
She stands in the bow of the coastal ship, cutlass in hand, extracting booty from any Alberta treasure that enters those waters. Clark’s Liberal crew stalled and squeezed the Kinder Morgan pipeline for years.
She got $1 billion out of it for B.C., along with many other concessions.
Despite that piratical precedent, nobody expected her sneak attack on thermal coal.
Clark says that if Ottawa doesn’t ban exports from B.C. ports, she will use provincial law to impose a $70 per tonne carbon price.
This is aimed at U.S. shipments, she says, as retaliation for new import duties on softwood lumber.
The move is also aimed at winning the votes of coastal climate advocates on Tuesday.
The impact on Alberta would be severe — up to 2,000 jobs gone, by one estimate, and nearly $300 million a year in lost revenue, because the coal would simply be too expensive to ship to Asia. And the impact on B.C.? Virtually zero, because that province does not produce thermal coal.
Such a coincidence. Clark’s dangerous pattern is to block interprovincial trade and access to tidewater when it’s convenient for her.
Her latest stunt is not just unconstitutional, but a violation of the New West Partnership trade pact signed by B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The first rule of that deal is: “Each Party shall ensure that its measures do not operate to restrict or impair trade between, among or through the territory of the Parties ... ”
Clark doesn’t appear to care about such little things.
The lumber duties hurt Alberta workers and companies as much as B.C.’s, but her response brings a further attack on Alberta.
Clark infuriates Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democrats, now more than ever.
But Notley swallowed hard and ordered her staffers not to campaign for John Horgan’s B.C. NDP, because he opposes the pipeline.
Clark’s Liberals — with an eye on that $1 billion — at least don’t stand in the way.
Notley is now forced to defend thermal coal, hardly her favourite energy product, while pointing out the essential goofiness of Clark’s action.
“Quite frankly, it’s not good for Alberta,” Notley said.
“But I also don’t know that this will get very far because I’m not convinced that the ability actually exists within the provincial government.” Technically, she’s right. Clark proposes to tax a product that’s neither produced nor consumed in her province.
By that standard, Alberta could tax B.C. wine on the way to Toronto, or natural gas crossing the province by pipeline.
The whole idea looks laughable.
Clark simply doesn’t have the authority. But that’s what Albertans said in 2012 when she marched into Calgary with a list of conditions, including money, for the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
She made that work by exploiting environmental activism and federal inaction.
Now she offers the coal tax as a detailed campaign promise.
If the Liberals win, she has to go through with it.
The B.C. election is complex and very close, with the Liberals and NDP nearly tied and the Greens running a strong third.
Even Alberta PC Leader Jason Kenney has been caught up.
At a dinner in B.C. recently, he urged people to support Clark.
Notley needled him for that on Wednesday when she talked about the coal tax.
“People who support that idea or support people proposing that idea ought to think about where their loyalties lie because, quite frankly, it’s not good for Alberta,” Notley said.
Calgary-Shaw MLA Graham Sucha added: “Why is Jason Kenney campaigning in B.C., when he should be in Alberta fighting for jobs?”
Kenney says he was asked to give a speech where he did endorse Clark’s Liberals.
And he is not apologizing now.
“I don’t agree with a tax on an export like this coal tax at all, but there’s still no question the B.C. Liberals would be far better for Alberta’s economy than the NDP ever would,” he said.
Many politicians just want this B.C. election over with.
Especially the Albertans.
Quite frankly, it’s not good for Alberta. But I also don’t know that this will get very far because I’m not convinced that the ability actually exists within the provincial government. Premier Rachel Notley