NDP defeats motion by Kenney
UCP Leader wants end to federal obstruction of flow of oil
United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney is demanding the federal government keep its hands off Alberta’s oil industry and stop obstructing the flow of oil through the country by its downstream and upstream emissions policies on pipeline approvals and construction. Kenney put a private member’s motion before the Alberta legislature Monday condemning the Trudeau government and demanding they remove upstream and downstream emissions requirements from the National Energy Board’s pipelines approvals process.
“My Motion 505 called on the federal government to respect Alberta’s constitutional jurisdiction on the regulation of oil and gas in dealing with pipelines,” explained Kenney.
Kenney said the federal government’s direct interference in the province’s jurisdiction, in violation of Section 92A of the Constitution Act, should be considered an affront to all Albertans.
“Upstream emissions is an exclusive provincial jurisdiction. The federal government has intervened on that, and we need to stand up and defend our turf.”
Kenney’s motion was defeated by the NDP majority. Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips said while the NDP is in agreement with Mr. Kenney on some points, Mr. Kenney’s motion failed to take into account what Alberta is already doing in respect to protecting its jurisdiction.
“We offered an amendment to basically acknowledge the work Alberta has done on upstream emissions through the Climate Leadership Plan,” said Phillips, “and that reasonable amendment was rejected by Mr. Kenney and his team. What you can do to head off the other jurisdiction’s interference is to have a plan of your own, and that is what we have done here. We have to take up that jurisdictional space with the Climate Leadership Plan; that is our plan relative to the federal government.”
Phillips said it has always been the position of her government that the assessment done by the Alberta government, with respect to upstream emissions, should be sufficient for the NEB approvals process as pipelines themselves produce no emissions.
“We tried to amend the motion to reflect reality,” said Phillips, “and that was rejected by Mr. Kenney because he is more interested in playing political games than working together to get results.”
As far as downstream emission requirements on pipelines go, Kenney said the federal government’s regulations are massively inhibiting to the competitiveness of Canada’s homegrown oil and gas industry.
“Why should a pipeline company be responsible for the consumption of the energy that it ships?” he asked. “We don’t hold the foreign oil tankers responsible for the consumption of energy they ship to Canada. Why would we put a Canadian
pipeline company at such a huge competitive disadvantage?”
Phillips said her government does not disagree with Mr. Kenney on this point.
“With respect to downstream emissions, it has always been our government’s position that is a massive overreach on the part of Ottawa,” she stated. “We do not agree, and we have vehemently said so (to the federal government) at every possible opportunity.”
Kenney has accused the Notley government of not being fierce enough in its championing of Alberta’s interests with respect to the B.C. government and the federal government. Phillips rejects this criticism outright.
“We have had a decade of tantrums in Alberta and jumping up and down and getting all yelly as a pipelines strategy,” said Phillips. “We got precisely zero pipelines accomplished through this strategy. We now have a different strategy, and Premier Notley has gotten results.”
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