Notley urges parties to unite on climate
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is warning all political parties to take off their partisan blinders or both the environment and Canada’s energy industry will fail.
Notley was in Ottawa this week as part of a campaign to build support for pipeline expansions. In a speech at the Economic Club of Canada and a roundtable discussion with The Canadian Press, she pleaded with political friends and foes alike to work with her.
“You know that this issue transcends political divides,” the NDP premier said.
She said the federal Liberals may get credit for approving Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but now they have to sell their decision to a skeptical public in British Columbia.
She urged the Conservatives in Ottawa and Alberta to stop pretending climate change isn’t real, because that creates a roadblock for pipeline approvals.
She saved some of her starkest words for members of her own party in Ottawa and other provinces, saying their efforts to protect the environment cannot come at the expense of people.
“We cannot put a generation of people out of work and then look surprised or act surprised when people reject the purpose for that, reject climate change, reject the efforts to protect the environment,” she said.
Notley and the federal NDP are not in sync on this issue, something she acknowledges.
Neither are they likely to be, as long as the expansion remains unpopular with progressive voters in B.C., a group the NDP and Liberals are already courting in the slow race toward the 2019 federal election.
That’s where having the Liberals use political muscle to get more support for the project comes into Notley’s equation.
“Part of governing is talking to citizens about what your plan is, what it’s there for, what you’re trying to achieve,” she said.
“That’s something they could do with more enthusiasm.”