Alberta politicians take aim at Montreal over pipeline rejection
CALGARY Alberta politicians united in slamming Montreal’s mayor Thursday after his city denounced the Energy East pipeline — but the NDP government also took crossfire over its embattled strategy to get energy projects built.
On Thursday, the group representing 82 municipalities in the Montreal region announced it formally opposes the proposed $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline, which would move Alberta oilsands crude to the east coast for export.
Mayor Denis Corderre, who is also president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, said the municipalities decided after a series of public consultations that the environmental risks outweigh the meagre economic benefits of the pipeline by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.
The opposition touched a raw nerve in Alberta and Western Canada. NDP Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous said Coderre’s comments were “both ungenerous and short-sighted. Everyone loses if we destroy our resource economy.”
Bilous said there should be recognition of Alberta’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the centrepiece of which is a plan to introduce a carbon tax in 2017 that will raise $3 billion annually.
“The fact of the matter is, a pipeline like Energy East will benefit all Canadians, all jurisdictions across the country,” he said.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean was harsher, tweeting: “You can’t dump raw sewage, accept foreign tankers, benefit from equalization and then reject our pipelines.”
Coderre’s city government sparked controversy last fall over a decision to dump eight-billion litres of waste water into the St. Lawrence River to make repairs to Montreal’s sewer system.
While the provincial economy and government finances have been hammered by plunging oil prices, Alberta remains a “have province” that does not receive funding under the federal equalization program. Quebec receives billions of dollars annually under the initiative.
But Jean also blasted the NDP government, saying Premier Rachel Notley ’s attempt to win social licence through a carbon tax and tougher environmental policies is a “failure.”
“The NDP have failed to speak out against the mistruths that continue to plague our pipelines and our oil industry,” he told reporters.
Federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose, in Calgary for prebudget consultations, said Coderre is “trying to deny the livelihood of other hard-working Canadians.”
But she also went after Notley for “punishing the oil and gas sector as a way to attract investment.”
“The reality is the friends she is trying to win over are the very people who want to shut down the industry. It won’t matter what we do,” said Ambrose.
Notley is continuing her lobbying efforts and will meet Friday with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in Toronto, with Energy East expected to be on the agenda.