Oilpatch hypocrisy isn’t limited to Quebec

Alberta has its own critics, who bite the hand that pays their lofty salaries

There’s one big difference between the $11 billion Quebec will get in equalization payments from Ottawa this financial year and the similar amount our government is borrowing in Alberta — eventually, we’ll have to pay ours back.

Yes, that thorny issue of the difference in federal transfer amounts handed out among the provinces is back following the cancellation of the Energy East pipeline project, along with the accompanying hope that Alberta crude could make it to New Brunswick and maybe replace some of that imported Saudi oil in those East Coast refineries.

Someone new to Canada would be forgiven for imagining such a national project, involving the shipment of our most important resource, would be an economic boon to everyone across the country, therefore a no-brainer for unanimous backing. Ah, but that’s never the way Confederation works.

So when everyone’s favourite loud-mouthed cartoon character of a Quebec politician, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, got all giddy and giggly in declaring victory after TransCanada Corp. announced it was shelving the project, his typical brazen blathering stirred up those barely suppressed emotions here in Wild Rose land about the amount certain provinces get in equalization payments, especially considering how Alberta hasn’t received a single dime since 1963.

That irritation spurred the Quebec government to try to calm the waters by calling for “reconciliation” between la belle province and Alberta. Government House Leader Jean-Marc Fournier said he understands Alberta’s disappointment, but added his province isn’t an economic adversary and the row is dividing the country. Wow, when Quebec starts talking about national unity, something’s up.

And what could that be? Perhaps it’s that $11 billion Ottawa is sending Fournier and his pals as part of this year’s equalization grant, by far the biggest such cheque being cut by the federal government.

Meanwhile, B.C., Saskatchewan and Newfoundland — yes, the same province with almost 15 per cent unemployment — join Alberta, yet again, in receiving zip, zilch and zero. Tossing natural resource revenue into the convoluted mix involved in these things means poor old Ontario needs such payments (they’ll net about $1.4 billion) while Newfies get diddly-squat.

Still, I’ve some sympathy with Fournier, because Quebec’s an easy target for a pervasive case of hypocrisy and stubbornness infecting all parts of Canada, including many folk here in Alberta.

A few months ago, on these very pages, appeared a silly article penned by an assorted score of academics from various provincial universities and publicly funded thinktanks, demanding an inquiry into the money lavished on the energy industry by various governments.

For example, they demanded to know why capital costs should be deductible from revenue before income tax is paid. (And some of these people are PhDs.) Of course not a single one has likely ever started his or her business and invested in equipment to hopefully make a profit down the road. The concept is completely alien. They probably think toilet paper comes out of the wall, because they’ve never had to replace the roll themselves.

But funnily enough, I did a little research, looking up a dozen of these signatories on the public payroll sunshine lists. Guess what? In the worst of the Alberta recession, through 2015-16, when so many people were losing their jobs in the oilpatch and beyond, many of this lot got hefty raises, usually about five per cent atop of salaries and benefits in the $150,000 to $250,000 range. Yep, those environmental studies profs don’t go short of a few bucks.

Does it occur to them that if Alberta’s energy industry was mothballed, we couldn’t afford to pay them a quartermillion dollars each year? In fact, we wouldn’t need them at all, as we’d all be involved in subsistence farming.

No, you don’t have to travel to Quebec to find those who love the spoils from the world of oil and gas, but equally enjoy the moral high ground of saying such energy companies are the despoilers of our very planet. Yes, plenty of those in our own backyard.