Messaging on energy issues creates sparks

Wildly differing messages on energy issues — from royalties to upgrading and pipelines — have highlighted contrasts between parties vying to form Alberta’s next government.

Their energy positions seem to create a wide gulf between Jim Prentice, the Progressive Conservative leader, and New Democrat Leader Rachel Notley, viewed as Prentice’s main rival.

But Mount Royal University professor Duane Bratt said from Calgary that behind the sound bites, Prentice and Notley are closer on policy than their messages would suggest.

“It’s how they’re spinning,” said Bratt, chairman of Mount Royal’s department of policy studies.

“They’re trying to create a wedge issue. But if you remove some of the rhetoric, there’s a lot more commonality on issues of upgrading and issues of pipelines. They just won’t say that during an election campaign.”

The NDP has pledged a review of Alberta’s royalty regime, leading to a royalty structure rewarding “valueadded processing” of bitumen within the province.

But Bratt said while Notley talks about the need for more upgrading, she’s quiet on the $8.5-billion North West Upgrader/Sturgeon Refinery being built near Fort Saskatchewan to upgrade bitumen supplied by the government and private-sector partner Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

Prentice has attacked Notley over the royalty-review idea, saying a review when oil prices are low would be wrong for the economy and for jobs. Prentice has also said the last royalty review, in 2007, cost Alberta thousands of jobs and billions in investment dollars.

“If you can’t do it when the price is high, and you can’t do it when the price is low, you’re really saying you should never do it,” Bratt said. “I think Jim Prentice is too smart of an individual to really believe that. This is election campaigning.”

The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry Alberta oil to the B.C. coast for export to other markets, has also proved contentious.

Prentice has told voters he’ll continue pushing for every proposed pipeline, while Notley has countered that the government should stop talking about Gateway because of the low likelihood of it going ahead.

Bratt said this only shows Notley taking a “realistic” position on “a private-sector decision that’s outside of Alberta’s jurisdiction.”

Notley has also said that if she becomes premier, she won’t travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby for the stalled Keystone XL pipeline.

But Notley remains open to the proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline to Vancouver and the proposed Energy East pipeline to Quebec and New Brunswick.

Bratt said this shows that like Prentice, the NDP leader understands the need to get Alberta oil to market.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean shares some ground with the Tories. He doesn’t favour a royalty review and supports all major pipeline proposals.

Jean would push ahead with construction of the North West Upgrader/Sturgeon Refinery despite his objections.

“I think government is there to manage bad decisions and to try to minimize the long-term cost to citizens,” he said.

The Alberta Liberals have been quieter on energy than the NDP and Tories, but have pledged to redirect funds currently earmarked for carbon capture and storage projects to front-line government services.

The Alberta Party’s platform highlights clean-energy initiatives, accelerating the shift away from coal power and increasing penalties paid by large carbon emitters. dhowell@edmontonjournal.com