SASK. OIL BILL AIMED AT B.C.
Province follows Alberta’s lead
Saskatchewan is making good on its word to restrict the flow of energy products leaving the province, including the place at which the new law is squarely aimed — B.C.
On Monday, Bill 112, the Energy Export Act was introduced. According to the province, it will create the framework necessary to “optimize the value of Saskatchewan’s oil, gas, and refined petroleum products.”
The law is intended to establish a permitting process in order for corporations to export outside of Saskatchewan, making it similar to a law recently brought forward in Alberta.
Both laws are retaliatory measures against B.C.’s government, which is continuing to oppose Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
In response, Alberta — and now Saskatchewan — are threatening to restrict the flow of energy products to B.C., which may in turn see residents of that province paying higher prices at the pumps.
As landlocked provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan argue B.C. is preventing energy products from more easily reaching world markets, where prices are more competitive.
“The expansion of our national pipeline capacity is vital to the future of our energy sector and to thousands of Canadian jobs. It must not be obstructed, either by a lack of federal leadership or by a provincial government that does not have the legal authority to impede a federally-approved project,” Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre said in a news release.
Later Monday she told reporters “this is not something that we want to do.”
“We don’t want to find ourselves in this position. We feel, though, that the broader threat to the energy sector and to the economic prosperity to Saskatchewan — really of the country as a federation — is an issue here,” she said.
Eyre said the response from the energy sector to the law has been “cautiously optimistic.”
The Canadian Fuels Association, in response to Alberta’s law, warned there could be “long-term unintended consequences” and cautioned the province from taking “an approach that could affect the integrated nature of the sector.”
While it would not be Saskatchewan oil flowing through Trans Mountain, the province is prioritizing the $2.6 billion it says it loses each year by not having enough access to tidewater over any other potential economic impact on the province.
Eyre pointed to this when asked if a specific economic assessment had been done exploring the impact of the new law, which has a sunset clause and would expire Jan. 31, 2019.
The province is also discounting any potential repercussions, from legal challenges or by violating trade agreements.
“There are issues with the trade agreement, there are issues with the Constitution in terms of who will step up here to protect the resource sector,” she said.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili also warned of “unintended consequences” and questioned the risks the law would have on the economy versus the benefits it would have in getting the pipeline built.