Feds indifferent to regional needs

The $15.7-billion Energy East project to pipe Western Canadian oil to Atlantic Canada is dead — a tremendous loss to this region’s economy and to sensible diversification of Canadian oil exports from the capricious grip of the American market.

To add insult to injury, we can’t even get a frank post mortem. TransCanada gave the barest of explanations for pulling the plug Thursday, citing a “careful review of changed circumstances.”

That left a blank page for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fill with a story that this was all about economics — low oil prices, cheaper routes, the likely approval of Keystone XL in the U.S. — and nothing to do with federal regulatory mismanagement. No mention, either, of Ottawa’s failure to make any case for a national oil grid to counter the campaign against Energy East led by Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre — whose qualifications and jurisdiction to make national energy policy are not apparent. TransCanada was more forthcoming in September, when it put its National Energy Board application on hold to evaluate the impact of “significant” process changes on the “costs, schedules and viability” of Energy East.

That referred to an NEB decision to hold the pipeline accountable for emissions from changes in oil consumption and production that the board deemed related to the pipeline.

Previously, the board held pipelines accountable only for emissions related to their construction and operation, a test it applied in approving two West Coast pipelines only last year.

So while Energy East did face challenging economics, these were not new, backers like Suncor and Irving were taking a long view, and the last straw was certainly Ottawa’s cold shoulder.

Holding a pipeline responsible for consumer and producer behaviour was ridiculous. Ottawa can affect these directly through regulation and taxes. Allowing pipelines to one coast but not another is a nonsense policy.

So Atlantic Canada is now left to get its oil from such bastions of political stability and climate enlightenment as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Great foresight there, Mr. Trudeau. Reminded of the double standard of applying tougher regulation to a Canadian oil pipeline than to oil from climate-indifferent jurisdictions abroad, federal Energy Minister Jim Carr had the nerve to say he wasn’t going to engage in a “race to the bottom.” Well, that’s where Atlantic Canada apparently stands in Ottawa. At the bottom. Where it’s OK to be the only region not connected to a national pipeline. Where it’s just fine to be dependent on oil imports whose climate-unfriendliness the Trudeau government feels free to ignore. Where it’s no problem to let the NEB run an erratic regulatory process with decision-makers being replaced, surprise new rules thrown in and the cost of compliance climbing to who-knows-where as the farce shambles along. Where a government that holds every parliamentary seat in the region is indifferent to the collapse of a $15.7-billion project that could have been engineered and built in a safe and environmentally sound manner.

Really, it’s not OK. None of the above is acceptable. Atlantic Canada and the West lose. America wins. Nice going, Trudeau government.