HORGAN THREATENS TO HURT B.C. MORE THAN ALBERTA CAN
Wine boycott lit a fire that has prompted federal officials to rush to Victoria
Premier Rachel Notley has reshaped her image radically in the past 10 days.
She’s gone from patient conciliator to fiery defender of Alberta, in the winning tradition of premiers stretching back to Social Credit and the Progressive Conservatives.
One thing she wouldn’t rule out Monday was somehow impeding or taxing B.C. natural gas shipments across Alberta. That’s a lot bigger than a wine boycott.
The struggle may nearly be over, though, because B.C. Premier John Horgan’s claimed ability to control bitumen shipments is flatly illegal, unconstitutional and, as Notley says, “ridiculous.”
There’s also the fact that “success” for Horgan — cancellation of the pipeline — would be extremely damaging to B.C.’s economy
One has to suspect Horgan doesn’t want to stop Kinder Morgan at all. His message is largely for Green Leader Andrew Weaver, who holds the balance of power: “I’m trying, Andrew, please don’t leave me.”
Meanwhile, Notley’s wine boycott is a sideshow meant to jolt Ottawa into the realization of a genuine crisis.
The feds tend to miss those things if they happen outside the Toronto-Montreal- Ottawa triangle.
The tactic worked brilliantly. Federal officials raced to Victoria to sort this out. Talks are going on right now.
You can bet they’re pointing to the danger of challenging federal power and embarrassing the prime minister.
Leaders in many fields across Canada are waking up to the danger to Canada, should Horgan somehow blunder into losing Kinder Morgan.
Former B.C. premier Christy Clark, who brokered the pipeline deal before she was defeated, called Horgan’s actions plainly illegal.
“In this country, we set rules, we set goalposts, and you can’t change them halfway through,” she told the conservative Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa.
That’s a bit rich from Clark, who moved the goalpost herself in the deal signed with Kinder Morgan on April 6, 2017.
She pried $1 billion in payments out of the company, but that was more an artful stretch of provincial privilege than an outright flouting of federal power.
The contract her government signed remains in force today.
Now, you’d think that since Horgan is so adamantly convinced the pipeline expansion is a menace to the coast, he would move to withdraw from that agreement.
Wouldn’t that prove beyond doubt that the NDP is deadly serious about stopping the project?
But no, the new government has not suggested cancelling the contract. Kinder Morgan hasn’t heard a hint of any desire to do so.
The truth is that failure of the project would hurt B.C.’s economy far more than any boycott Notley might dream up.
First, the agreement guarantees that cash payment of up to $1 billion over 20 years.
Also linked to pipeline approval is Ottawa’s plan to pay $1.5 billion for marine safety.
Hopefully, federal negotiators will point that out this week. Does B.C. want that vital work done, or not?
The contract includes a very specific promise to put “British Columbians First.”
It’s a pledge to hire and buy from local and First Nations businesses wherever possible.
A good portion of the $7.4 billion in construction spending will be sprayed around the province.
There’s a host of community benefit agreements. Kamloops, for instance, would get a $700,000 payment along with work for 22 local firms.
The pipeline would be a property tax bonanza for every city and hitching post along the route.
Kinder Morgan would pay $530 million in new municipal taxes over the 20-year term. Burnaby, the terminal city, would collect a total of $264 million, as well as a direct benefit payment.
All this would mean nothing if regulators had ruled the project to be dangerous and environmentally risky. They found nothing of the sort.
Does Horgan really want to throw all this away, and answer later to the majority of British Columbians who favour the pipeline?
I don’t think so either.