Jobs for Quebec, but not the West

Isee, thanks to Blacklock's Reporter, that SNC-Lavalin is still receiving government support. It is, after all, a Quebec company.

It was also the company at the centre of a huge controversy that involved Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some of his cabinet colleagues and even a top civil servant pressuring then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on the company's behalf.

But that's all behind us now, and it is a good thing to see that SNC is back receiving government contracts. It's all about “jobs, jobs, jobs,” remember? And there will be jobs, even though this particular contract is a little vague.

We know it was a $150-million contract for COVID-19 field hospitals that was signed five months ago. But there was “no fixed delivery date” for the project, according to a government memo. And where was the company supposed to build these field hospitals? “No formal request has been made by a province or territory to date as these units have been ordered in anticipation of a potential need by the Government of Canada for a broad range of situations,” read another memo.

Well, la-di-da. When it's fighting for jobs, jobs, jobs, this government finds no barrier too challenging. Even, it seems, if a potential product is not asked for, and has no fixed delivery date (they could come after COVID, for all we know).

The message is that this government fights for every Canadian job. Except when it doesn't. Take note of the great storm over the Keystone XL pipeline. When U.S. President Joe Biden, on the very first day of his presidency, cancelled Keystone, the uproar from Ottawa, and the prime minister in particular, was deafening. The Peace Tower itself trembled from the rage emanating from the Prime Minister's Office. Thunderous denunciations rolled down Parliament Hill and echoed throughout Ottawa.

I kid, of course. There was no uproar. There wasn't even a whimper. All hands in Ottawa, and chiefly the top man, submitted to Biden, genuflected to his edict and gave Keystone a feeble wave goodbye. Biden's rush to make the cancellation a priority on Day 1 was inexplicable, but the greedy eagerness of Trudeau to bow to the decision, and perform the bow in public, was equally astonishing.

To my mind, it remains a true puzzle why a decision of this magnitude — we're not talking delivery-date-unspecified mobile health units from a very troubled

Quebec company, after all — got such little coverage. It is a huge story. So huge, in fact, that while here in Canada it's long gone from the front pages, down in the United States, reporters (and some politicians) are still puzzled and perplexed about Canada's tepid, feeble response.

Last Sunday, on Meet the Press, Trudeau was asked, “Are you going to stop advocating for it here?” His answer will not summon up memories of Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech, or Winston Churchill's “on the beaches” aria of defiance. Trudeau's oratory went no further in reply than, “I think it's fairly clear that the U.S. administration has made its decision on that.”

Well, if there is no kickback, at all, not a mutter or a murmur, then I suppose it is pretty clear the decision is made.

“We're much more interested in ensuring that we're moving forward in ways that are good for both of our countries,” he continued. “I think there's so much we can do together that I don't spend too much time worrying about the tension.”

Much more interested? Do the interests of Alberta and our domestic energy industry hold any interest for this government? Is the killing of Keystone somehow good for both of our countries? And what does the careless phrase, “I don't spend too much time worrying,” mean in this context? Does he not worry about Western disenchantment? About oilfield jobs? About all the money, including from Alberta taxpayers, that has already been spent on this project? Evidently, even the Meet the Press journalist found this puzzling.

Over at Fox News, the perplexity was more pointed. There, the host of a Sunday panel asked a real question, one that I certainly haven't heard north of the 49th parallel: “Can you imagine being the leader of a country knowing that you cost your country billions of dollars and you don't even point it out with the president of the United States?” That was the question.

He made one other observation it is impossible to disagree with: “Justin Trudeau had an opportunity to say (the pipeline) had zero impact on the environment and you turned it down along with the American steel jobs, along with the American pipeline jobs, and he just punted. I would be beside myself if I were Canadian.”

It only makes sense once you understand that Canada's Liberal government is inert on the issues that count, incompetent in the management of the health crisis and sublimely active in posturing and offering soft platitudes about left-wing issues. It is all varnish and no wood, all wind and no sail, all talk and no doing.

The complacency over Keystone is suffocating. But hey, what about those mobile health units? Jobs, jobs, jobs. “Only in Quebec,” you say? Pity.

THERE WAS NO UPROAR. THERE WASN'T EVEN A WHIMPER.