Pipelines trump carbon taxes, pundit says in fiery speech

LAKE LOUISE, ALTA. A business crowd of about 400 leapt to their feet in a standing ovation Friday at the suggestion that it should be illegal for Canadian governments to collect carbon taxes until there are new export pipelines delivering Alberta crude oil to world markets.

“Until there are pipelines leaving Alberta — plural — and there is oil flowing through them that will go to international markets, and US$40 price differentials are no longer the thing, until that time, it should be illegal for two lips to close on the phrase, ‘carbon tax,’” said pundit Rex Murphy.

The broadcaster and long-time defender of the oil industry ended a fiery speech by criticizing environmentalists and federal politicians alike for stalling pipelines needed to relieve a glut of oil in Western Canada that is blamed for Western Canadian Select bitumen-blend crude trading at as much as US$52 per barrel less than New York-traded West Texas Intermediate.

The Newfoundland-born orator quoted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who said this week in Calgary the discounts amount to a “crisis,” adding he holds the government accountable for that crisis.

On the sidelines, executive fellow Ted Morton with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy said Murphy’s speech resonates with many in the oilpatch who feel betrayed by the government in Ottawa despite Alberta’s financial contributions to the country.

“We’re the Newfies of the West, right? We’ve never really been loved by Central Canada, neither Ontario nor Quebec, so there’s this lingering suspicion that Ottawa doesn’t work very well for us,” he said. “The question of Alberta- Ottawa relations is very much a raw nerve in Alberta right now.”