Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives are spearheading an effort to form a National Energy Strategy.
It is understandable why, upon hearing the words “national”, “energy” and a synonym for “program” in the same sentence, Albertans feel a sudden surge in blood pressure. Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program was an intentional attack on our province by easily the most fiscally irresponsible Prime Minister in our nation’s history. He saw Alberta as a treasure chest of wealth for the federal treasury and took advantage of his electoral dominance in Central and Eastern Canada to raid our province of 10s of billions of dollars.
Clearly, Prime Minister Harper is nothing like Pierre Trudeau. I have no doubt that his government is pursuing this initiative for the benefit of our province and country. And although I think the idea has high potential upside, it comes with several very important preconditions.
If the purpose of this new National Energy Strategy initiative is to come to an agreement on how the federal and provincial governments can work together to expedite approvals and agreements with Aboriginal groups for large energy projects such as Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline to the west coast, the Keystone bitumen pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast, or the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline, then this is a conversation well worth having.
As a province, we are far too dependent on the U.S. market for our energy exports and must expedite the process of diversifying our customer base by opening up the almost incomprehensibly large Asian market.
However, if this discussion devolves into one about carbon taxes, cap and trade, or some other wealth redistribution scheme that is meant to benefit Eastern and Central Canadian voters at the expense of Albertans, the provincial government should walk away from the table without flinching.
If the discussion turns into one about our province ceding decision-making authority over our resources to federal bureaucracies in Ottawa, Alberta should again walk away without reservation.
And if the proposed agreement includes an Alberta commitment to pour billions of dollars into wasteful and nonsensical so-called green technologies like the PCs deplorable $2 billion carbon capture and storage fund, then we should again walk away from the table after first checking our wallets.
In short, if the proposed National Energy Strategy is founded on the principle that we need to work together to increase the amount of development and export of our nation’s massive energy wealth, Alberta should be at the table.
If, however, the conversation turns into “what will Alberta give the rest of us, and what will they pay to the “green” lobby so they will get off our backs politically?” our province must have nothing to do with it.
So far, our Alberta Prime Minister has shown every indication that it is the former principle, rather than the latter, he cares about. Until he or our provincial counterparts communicate otherwise, Alberta should be at the table… at the seat closest to the exit just in case.
