Negotiations are not about having a tantrum: Notley

Contrary to comments made by Saskatchewan rival Brad Wall, Rachel Notley says she’s no pushover. She’ll never hand an Energy East pipeline veto to Quebec or Ontario, and we won’t see her throwing a tantrum in a corner.

“I am saying that I understand that negotiations are not all about standing in a corner and having a tantrum. Negotiations are about what you get at the other end. That’s what I’m focused on now.”

After meeting this week with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Notley had seemed to suggest Quebec’s view of Alberta policy might be crucial to getting approval for the $ 12- billion Energy East oil pipeline.

On Thursday she replied: “Under no circumstances would I now or would I ever do such a thing, and it is really quite ridiculous to suggest it.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. I’m not linking it in any way.

“All I’m acknowledging is that it’s going to be helpful ... to be able to talk to people about genuine efforts you are making to be environmentally responsible.”

Canadians elsewhere recognize that the energy sector creates jobs, she said, “but those same people need to feel that the best work that can be done is being done, to ensure that the industry is acting environmentally responsibly.

“That’s not linking any specific demand of Quebec to ours. It’s simply acknowledging that the two can work together.”

Told of her response on the veto issue, Wall said, “If she said she’s not, I think that’s positive.

“I’m guessing there’s been some second thought on the part of the premier perhaps, and she’s made the right decision.”

After Notley suggested on television Thursday that he was showboating, Wall replied: “If standing up for the industry that’s so important to our province is showboating in any way, show me to the bridge.”

Notley’s rebuttal to all that isn’t recorded, and maybe that’s best. It might be unprintable. The debate has escalated wildly since I raised the veto issue two days ago. That may have a lot to do with upcoming elections and partisan rivalries between Notley’s NDP, the federal Conservatives, and Wall’s right- tilting Saskatchewan Party. Notley counters that her goal “is about getting a pipeline, not about positioning.”

“I’m not going to speak to what the motivations are of Premier Wall. What I am going to say is that from my perspective, the best strategy is to conduct myself like a mature player on the national level, and have thoughtful, intelligent, responsive conversations with my colleagues, and see where that takes us.

“That’s the approach I’m going to take and so I’ll let Mr. Wall do what Mr. Wall wants to do.”

“What I can do is not pick a fight, what I can do is try to develop consensus for what it is our industry needs to have happen, to ensure its prosperity at the same time that we’re asking it to acknowledge its environmental responsibilities.”

This spat between western premiers at a national conference is unprecedented, which does not make it a good thing. One way the West gained national influence in the 1970s and 1980s was through rock- solid unity across four provinces. The western premiers used to meet beforehand to work out positions on various issues. They once drove Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau half- mad with their Four Amigos routine.

Alberta PC Premier Peter Lougheed and his Saskatchewan counterpart, New Democrat Allan Blakeney, were the intellectual leaders who patrolled a formidable western front.

We’re a long way from that now. Down east, there will be a chuckle or two in the Ontario and Quebec delegations.