Ottawa seems unable to deal with Alberta

Re: “Trans Mountain expansion could be delayed for years,” Sept. 1.

How we got to the recent Federal Court decision on the Trans Mountain pipeline is a saga of monumental missteps, a story of the tail wagging the dog. The elephant in the room is the federal government’s seeming inability to deal with Alberta.

The feds have the authority to impose a carbon tax. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not have to promise Alberta a pipeline in exchange. He put his government in a box from which they seem incapable of escaping.

Alberta sold the myth of a need to “get their product to tidewater.” For 65 years, there has been a pipeline to tidewater — the government just bought it with our money. Alberta exaggerates the value of the oilsands and mythical better markets. Just point those ships in another direction if the market is there.

When oil prices were high, Albertans spent like drunken sailors. When the party was over, they were in debt. They would never accept a sales tax. They have not diversified their economy or set aside a fund to smooth the inevitable peaks and valleys in oil prices.

Premier Rachel Notley’s televised temper tantrum, in which she so much as said that she was telling the prime minister what to do, was the last straw, not because she said it, but because no one in the federal government responded to tell her how our federation works. Instead, we got a weak-kneed “we will make sure your pipeline gets built.”

The prime minister has squandered much goodwill and credibility trying to appease a province for which there is no appeasement. S.A. McBride Victoria