Let down by NDP?

Special to The Post

Dear Editor:

In response to the court decision to suspend regulatory approval for the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Rachel Notley claims that she and Alberta have “done everything right,”yet been let down.”

Unfortunately, evidence of having done everything right is quite the contrary, starting with Notley’s decision to hire radical environmental activist and anti-pipeline crusader Tzeporah Berman, to co-chair Alberta’s oil sands advisory group. Berman is a radical who physically blockaded Kinder Morgan’s work site, and used social media to encourage others to join her.

Additionally, was Notley “doing everything right,” when she responded to the demise of the Northern Gateway Pipeline, by assuring Albertans that building it was “not the right decision.” (Calgary Herald, April 2015).

How about Notley’s ideological opposition to coal? Did she do that right too? Notley prematurely knocked out more than a dozen coal-fired electrical plants as part of her climate leadership plan, which has cost, and will cost, billions. Ironically, since she foolishly did this, there have been times when Alberta has bought coalfired electricity from Montana to meet the needs of our provincial grid. (This refers to transactions where the Alberta Electric System Operator [AESO] manages and obtains electricity through private operators to put on the Alberta grid. A debate in the Alberta legislature on this is at: https://www. facebook.com/PrasadPandaYYC/ videos/988589164647873/)

Not long ago, NDP MLA Rosendahl and many of his colleagues threw aside the concerns of residents in West Yellowhead and elsewhere, when they voted in favour of Notley’s carbon tax. At one point, Rosendahl publicly voiced his concerns over the carbon tax. “I’ll be honest with you” he said, “the industrial users like the mines and the mills [in West Yellowhead]… it could affect them as to the amount of money that they would pay… I mean we’re already in a tight job situation for the economy and getting workers jobs.” Not long saying this, NDP MLAs unanimously passed the tax. Do these actions by Notley, and others of her government, suggest that they did everything right?

This summer, as the NDP government celebrated the purchase of Kinder Morgan, Rosendahl penned a letter to the local paper also celebrating the purchase. He was delighted that governments were spending billions on a pipeline that a private company, Kinder Morgan, was perfectly willing to build with its own money, without a dime from taxpayers. Kinder Morgan simply wanted a stable regulatory environment and assurances that governments (provincial and federal) would enforce existing laws. They didn’t get it, so Notley and her MLAs wanted to purchase the pipeline. She now claims she did everything right.

Notley’s climate leadership plan was supposed to buy “social licence.” Over and over we were told that the carbon tax was a concession to environmental groups. We were assured that the tax would quickly cause environmentalists to love us, and to support pipelines. Is this part of what Notley did right?

Notley now says that to demonstrate her anger she’s pulling Alberta out of the McKenna/Trudeau climate plan. Is she really? No. Will Notley eliminate her carbon tax? No. Will Notley reimburse Albertans for the amount they have thus far paid for her carbon tax? No. Will she adjust regulations and taxes to encourage energy-related economic development? No.

Has Ms. Notley done everything right, as she claims? That’s easy to answer. No.

Stuart Taylor, Hinton