Trudeau aligns with oil expansion
Promotes carbon-reduction framework
A ... program that harms one part of the country harms us all
In a speech Friday at the Calgary Petroleum Club, the heart of Canada’s oil industry, Justin Trudeau argued the solution to Canada’s oil market expansion problems lies in a national approach to reducing carbon emissions.
“If we want to restore our international reputation, something we need to do to create jobs and spur investment, we must take action and we must do it now,” the federal Liberal leader said to a packed lunch event. “If we want to get our resources moving, the federal government must act in regaining public trust. And that starts with a mature conversation on carbon pricing.”
His proposal: build on provincial carbon reduction programs in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario to achieve a Canadian carbon-reduction standard, and provide federal funding to help achieve the targets.
The encouraging news — at least from the perspective of the energy sector — is that Mr. Trudeau seems onside with continued oil industry expansion and that his climate change program aims to support it rather than contain it.
If elected prime minister, he said, he would go to the United Nations’ climate change conference in early December in Paris with two messages:
One, that “Canada takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and we will do more in the fight against climate change.” And two, that “getting our resources to market is a priority for Canadians and we know that that economic success depends on us keeping our word on the environment.”
The not-so encouraging news: there’s a lot more to pipeline opposition than a climate change plan that isn’t substantially different from what is already happening.
Oil export pipelines — from TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL to Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway — offer powerful leverage to disparate groups with an interest in conflict, not solutions: Anti-fossil-fuel activists who want to shut down the oilsands; NIMBYs on the West Coast who don’t want tanker traffic; provinces looking to snatch some revenue. And then there are the anti-establishment types who oppose pipelines because they hate industry, period.
In keeping with his election theme that the Conservatives mismanaged the economy, Mr. Trudeau said Prime Minister Stephen Harper damaged Canada’s domestic and international reputation by refusing to show climate change leadership.
If elected, Mr. Trudeau said he would quickly meet with premiers and territorial leaders to implement a national carbon-reduction framework — one that allows provinces to develop their own approaches.
That flexibility is better than a “one-size-fits-all” scheme. Provinces representing the majority of the economy already have programs suited to their needs, such as carbon taxes in British Columbia and Alberta’s tax on large emitters that is funnelled into an innovation fund.
The Prime Minister would have already locked up Keystone XL’s approval if only he had a good working relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama, Mr. Trudeau argued.
“Calling people names, issuing ultimatums — that does nothing in practical, meaningful, measurable ways to advance the interests of Canada’s resource sectors,” he said. “All it does is further alienate people of goodwill at home and abroad.”
These are widespread views in some circles, but they don’t stand up to scrutiny. Canada has mounted a massive effort to win approval for Keystone XL, used all available tactics, according to Canadian ambassador to the United States Gary Doer, including offering a co-ordinated cross-border approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“People say, ‘If you would have done more on regulations, you would then get an answer,’” he said in an interview last year. “If that was true, we would have.”
Mr. Trudeau also argued that pipeline projects have failed to obtain “social license” because impacted people don’t trust the government to protect their interests, including providing adequate regulatory oversight or respecting the rights of aboriginal people.
It’s hard to imagine the National Energy Board doing any more than it already did in its massive review of the Northern Gateway pipeline; or industry doing anything more to consult and accommodate aboriginal communities; or the federal government coming up with better initiatives to include aboriginals in resource development or protect the West Coast from oil spills.
Still, it took courage for Mr. Trudeau to advocate environmental leadership, which at the end of the day will cost money, in the middle of an oil-price crash that is hitting Alberta hard.
He also said he learned from the mistakes of his father, who introduced the National Energy Program in 1980.
“I’m the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, my last name is Trudeau and I’m standing here at the Petroleum Club in Calgary,” he said.
“A federal program that harms one part of the country, harms us all.”
Even if Liberals stand little chance of winning seats in Alberta in this year’s federal election, Mr. Trudeau is making progress.