‘EXISTENTIAL’ TRADE WAR BETWEEN B. C. AND ALBERTA
COMMENT Trudeau promise lacks credibility
An ugly trade war between British Columbia and Alberta is an “existential moment for Confederation,” according to one lawyer.
Alberta took its first retaliatory step against British Columbia Thursday by suspending talks on the purchase of electricity from that province. But there is also talk of launching a wider boycott of B.C. products, such as wine. At the heart of the dispute is B.C.’s blocking of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion which Alberta needs to move its oil.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Edmonton Thursday, is supporting the pipeline but has come under attack for not doing anything to resolve the issue.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the province would do “whatever it takes” to get the pipeline built and called on the federal government to intervene.
“We need them to assert very clearly that there is one government in the country that gets to make a decision about what goes into pipelines that cross borders,” she said. “That government is the federal government.”
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was serious about supporting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, he’d act with the urgency Canada’s pipeline crisis deserves, not parrot promises no one believes he will keep.
During a stop in Edmonton Thursday, amid rising tensions between Alberta and B. C. over the long- delayed project, Trudeau said the $ 7.4 billion expansion would get built and that the federal government would stand by its decision to approve it.
“It’s important to get our oil resources to markets other than the United States for the Alberta economy, for the Canadian economy to continue to grow and we need to do that safely,” the prime minister said on an Edmonton radio station.
Here’s the problem: That promise has no credibility because there have been zero consequences for undermining it, as British Columbia’s NDP/ Green government keeps doing. The province’s mos t provocative move came this week when it announced a plan to restrict transportation of bitumen until there are further studies on its behaviour in case of a spill, effectively giving itself power over the expansion even if it has no jurisdiction and it’s been federally approved.
Here’s the other problem: There is no deadline to keep that promise, and the project could run out of money before Trudeau delivers.
The range and severity of options being proposed in retaliation to B.C.’s latest move should be a wake- up call for Trudeau that Canada’s pipeline disaster is deteriorating into a national unity crisis, in addition to a financial one because Canada’s landlocked oil is deeply discounted, resulting in lost revenue, taxes and royalties of tens of millions of dollars a day.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley made her first move on Thursday, saying her government is suspending talks with B.C. on the purchase of electricity from that province. She says $ 500 million annually for B. C.’s coffers hangs in the balance.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said he supports pushback against B.C.
Jason Kenney, the former f ederal cabinet minister who now leads Alberta’s opposition United Conserva- tive Party, said it’s time to up the ante, including blocking Alberta oil exports to B. C. and putting tolls on B.C. gas flowing through Alberta to the United States. Turning off the oil taps would be a last resort among a range of measures, but Kenney said he is proposing it to get people’s attention.
As ugly as is the prospect of denying B.C. oil from Alberta, it has wide support among Albertans, who feel that day should come sooner rather than later for B.C. Some even talk of boycotts of B.C. wines and of B.C. holidays.
Alberta oil transported on the Trans Mountain pipeline supplies much of B.C.’s fuel, including aviation fuel for Vancouver International Airport.
“Imagine some intermittent withholding of supply, what that would do to retail gas prices in the Lower Mainland, that are already $ 1.80 a litre,” Kenney said in an interview. “We need to get the attention of ordinary British Columbians. If their government is launching a trade war, it will have consequences for everyone.”
Alberta could also go to court to challenge B.C.’s proposed regulations, suspend the carbon tax or at least withhold i ncreases until Alberta oil is flowing, file a complaint under the New West Partnership trade deal, end contracts to purchase power from B.C. Hydro, Kenney said.
“If you are in a trade war with a protagonist who is threatening to block the shipment of your most important product, you don’t address that through passivity and surrender,” Kenney said.
Trudeau’s handling of the file shows he doesn’t understand that regulation of interprovincial pipelines is exclusive federal jurisdiction and what the B. C. government has threatened to do is a direct attack on the constitution, Kenney said.
“This is not just about the Kinder Morgan project,” he said. “This is about whether Canada is an economic union. This is about whether our constitution means something, or whether we are just 10 balkanized governments that can arbitrarily violate the free movement of goods across the country.”
Calgary lawyer Rick Gilborn said Trudeau could put a quick end to B.C.’s stunts by calling on Parliament to declare the Trans Mountain pipeline and the products it carries to be a work for the general advantage of Canada and suspending all provin- cial and municipal regulatory or statutory hurdles, a power it has under section 92(10)(c) of the Constitution Act.
“This is an existential moment for Confederation,” Gilborn said.
“If Trudeau and the Liberals continue their passive- aggressive approach to Alberta, Saskatchewan and the hundreds of thousands of jobs in the energy sector and allows B.C. to carry on this way forcing more expensive and time- wasting litigation, then there is no purpose to Confederation.”
The step should have been taken long ago for all the major pipeline projects and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper shares in the blame for failing to do so, but Trudeau and the Liberals are in charge now and extreme circumstances call for extreme measures, he said.
“I lived through the destruction wrought by Trudeau senior’ s national energy program,” Gilborn said. “This is worse, times ten.”