Province to make very public case on oil revenues
Alberta buys print, outdoor ads in Montreal during premiers’ meeting
Alberta government advertisements spelling out Canada’s lost oil revenues will splash over Montreal in red ink this weekend as the nation’s premiers meet in that city.
The government took the “unprecedented” step of advertising during the first ministers meeting to “remind people and premiers that denying access to tidewater costs Canada’s economy $80 million a day,” said a Thursday afternoon government news release.
The provincial government is spending $84,000 on print advertisements in the Montreal Gazette, Star Metro Montreal and Le Devoir, “extensive home page presences” on the papers’ websites and projecting advertisements onto the sides of nearly 20 central Montreal buildings.
“Alberta’s challenges are national challenges and Albertans expect their government to make that case every chance it can,” Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said in the news release.
“We’re not going to stop until the pipeline is built to keep Canada working.”
The print advertisements will run Friday and Saturday and the projections will be visible until Sunday, the premier’s spokeswoman, Cheryl Oates, said in a Thursday email.
The Gazette ad says the paralysis afflicting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project means less funding for infrastructure, less investment in green energy and fewer Canadian jobs. It says increased pipeline capacity should be a priority for the premiers as they meet.
With a glut of Alberta oil trapped in storage and limited means to move it out of the province, Notley on Sunday announced producers must cut oil production by 8.7 per cent come January. The temporary measure is meant to prevent Alberta oil from selling at a steep discount.
Western Canadian Select was selling for just shy of $28 a barrel on Wednesday, compared to West Texas Intermediate at nearly $53 a barrel.
Oates said the government has never before run such an advertising campaign during a first ministers meeting.
The federal government bought the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion after the Federal Court of Appeal in August quashed the government’s approval of the pipeline expansion. The project aims to triple the capacity of the existing oil pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.
The court said the National Energy Board failed to examine impacts on the ocean ecosystem, including B.C.’s endangered southern resident killer whales. It also found Canada failed to meaningfully consult with First Nations during the final phase of discussions.
The federal government has since ordered the energy board to review the project’s marine shipping effects within 155 days and issue a report no later than Feb. 22.
Notley said Thursday she’ll have allies in the room to help push talks on the oil-price crisis at the Friday premiers meeting, despite its absence from the formal agenda.
“There is really no province in the country that doesn’t owe Alberta to some degree for their schools, their hospitals, their roads. The fact of the matter is Alberta has to do well for Canada to do well,” Notley said in Edmonton before leaving for Montreal.
She said forecasts for Canada’s economic growth are already more muted because of the low price Alberta is getting for its oil in the United States and its inability to move its product to ports for shipment overseas.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to face criticism from premiers about the federal approach to pipelines, carbon taxes, oil prices, environmental assessments and a planned General Motors plant closure in Ontario — none of which are named on the meeting agenda.
Notley also said she doesn’t want to spend time listening to what the federal government says it is already doing to try to address Alberta’s concerns.
“We don’t need federal ministers to explain to us what they’ve already done. We’re all capable of reading their press releases.”
In Ontario, Doug Ford’s office said the Ontario premier is prepared to walk away from the meeting Friday if it does not include specific discussions on the federal carbon tax.
Ford was set to meet with Trudeau in Montreal on Thursday afternoon.
Sources familiar with the dispute said Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have not been satisfied by the federal response that the meeting agenda includes a discussion on economic competitiveness — a broad topic that Ottawa says will allow premiers to raise all the issues they please.
Ontario government house leader Todd Smith said the agenda doesn’t deal with the concerns of the provinces.
Federal officials have privately conceded that little headway is likely to be made on the official objective of the meeting: reducing interprovincial trade barriers.
Asked by reporters in Montreal about the premiers’ dissatisfaction with the agenda, Trudeau refused to engage with the question directly.
“I’m looking forward to a productive discussion. I have no illusions that we’re going to agree on everything,” he said.