For the first time in many years, the federal government is stoking Western alienation as it proves unable to find its way in promoting resource development and access to export markets for Canadian energy, while trying to balance environmental considerations. The prime minister calls the dispute between Alberta and British Columbia — over B.C.’s attempt to ban shipments carrying Alberta’s oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion claiming a fear of oil spills — a “disagreement between provinces.” That ignores the constitutional role the federal government has in interprovincial transportation and trade. Alberta’s Premier Rachel Notley is right: This is as much a fight between B.C. and the federal government as it is between Alberta and B.C.
In fairness, the federal Liberals have said they still support the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and vow to see it built. It’s a promise that won’t help the Liberals garner many votes in Vancouver, but perhaps the Trudeau government is quietly hoping the pipeline’s owner, Kinder Morgan, gives up in frustration, for “business reasons,” as other resource project proponents have done recently after enduring endless regulatory and political setbacks.
[…]
The parts of Western Canada that rely on energy — Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.’s interior — are beginning to relive the consequences of Pierre Trudeau’s disastrous National Energy Program of 1980-85. The NEP, which hit the West just as commodity prices were falling, led to one of the largest income transfers in history, from the West to Central and Eastern Canada. Western energy producers were forced to pay an export tax to fund subsidies to make life cheaper for energy-guzzling consumers to the east. This time, the income isn’t being transferred from the West to Eastern Canada. It’s being transferred from Canada to the United States.
Related: Left vs Left vs Left
No BC wine in Alberta – great! Alberta has no Molson brewery – it comes from BC. Stop that too. Alberta was set to sign an agreement to buy $500 million of power annually from the new BC dam – that’s off.
Trudeau has never supported a pipeline of any sort. He just said he did for necessary votes.
This is history repeating itself.
“Alberta was set to sign an agreement to buy $500 million of power annually from the new BC dam – that’s off.”
And after the coal fired power plants are shut down, you won’t have to tell the last person to leave to shut off the lights. There won’t be any.
They don’t want our oil going to tidewater to service exports. Heck they don’t want oil going east to service the domestic market either.
Boy blunder has no problem with Kinder Morgan because it doesn’t threaten Saudi Arabian (Grit BFF) crude imports into Canada.
Mr Sheer needs to out him now with a platform plank to unite Western oil with Eastern refineries. If not the money pipeline will close too.
Then you will see a different version of let’s all get along eh.
Screw BC. Screw Ontario. Screw Quebec. Moe has already proven he is just as “Saskatchewan first” as his predecessor by continuing to remain in Canada. Canada means Ontario and Quebec; Saskatchewan Party actually means Canada party. Which means, Ontario and Quebec.
Rumor has it that Kinder Morgan people were once asked at one time if they were prepared to see the Army brought in to ensure the pipeline twining of Trans Mountain was accomplished. I suspect that it could end up happening that way. The psycho-green minorities of the Lower mainland and Victoria aren’t into discussion or compromise and having been involved in the war in the woods of 25 years ago, I know that they either win (endless delay is considered victory) or are physically removed from the blockades. Relying on the Spawn to send in the troops to enforce federal sovereignty is highly unlikely. Rachel should forget wine and shut down all the valves and let the Coastal greens piss off the majority who don’t share their desire to live like pigs in the cold and dark and stuck at home.
Poll spotting: https://www.bnn.ca/
Not likely to happen, union company in lower mainland. Would not want to impact any NDP voters.
It’s ironic that so many conservatives back the boycott of B.C.’s wine,most which is grown in a Conservative area of B.C.
I have rarely bought B.C. wines as they are acidic and over priced,much prefer California plonk which I can drink by the quart and not suffer heartburn as I do when I drink one little glass of B.C. wine,which I have always referred to as “grape juice mixed with battery acid”.
What great leadership Trudeau has shown,he has the Country divided more than ever,just as his hero,Obama, did in the USA.
Maybe that’s the plan.
My impression is that it is BC that is behaving badly here. It is true — no pipeline and that wealth goes to the US. Many Alberta jobs are at stake, and Alberta wealth is important for many social programs. BC has nothing to complain about here. Their position is driven by many ill-informed environmentalists. The country will fall apart before Trudeau makes a move.
What has happened to Keystone pipeline, by the way? Is that not going forward?
“a different version of let’s all get along eh.”
ha ha !!! oh lard tunderin’. for sure.
I remember the ‘let eastern b*st*rds freeze in the dark’ and REALLY resented it.
but hey, I was in my early 20s and failed to attribute the sit’n properly. (as was the plan from turdoo 1.0)
someone said here leftists tend to be the ignorant sector.
Im no longer a leftist and have > 50 years behind me of ‘filling in the blanks’.
an objection to the pipeline came from environmentalists, correctly based on the inaccessibility of parts of it in the event of a break or sabotage.
uhuh. and WHO but a bunch of *&&$#*&*(&%#*&#*I(*#@*&^%@ enviro WHACKOS would venture into the wilderness to do such a thing?
Trudeau is 25% salesman, 75% cheerleader. He is not a negotiator. The Federal government won’t get past the provinces on pipelines and if they do they face Liberal voters who don’t like fossil fuels. And on the odd chance the Federal government gets past the provinces and the voters it faces the NGO-backed First Nations. I don’t see a western pipe line ever being built. And I doubt Alberta transfer payments to Quebec will ever change.
Absolutely Shamrock; If The Federal Conservatives do not Stand Up for Alberta; Why should there be a Canada as presently existing.
California is starting to talk about being a Separate Nation. Okay B.C. self-serving cherry-picking Western Version of the same egregious Central Canada; Ottawa; Toronto; all of Quebec and the Hiding in the Corner of Canada “Atlantic Provinces–Find another group of Suckers to be parasites of.
Alberta & Saskatechewan & Manitoba & Northern Ontario & the North Shore of Ontario are willing to bring the Interior of B.C. from the Fifty-Four – Forty North and Use Alaska as the Pipeline Route.
Why give another Billion $ to the American – Atlantic Provinces VESTED INTERESTS another “Nickel’ of Equalization Dollars.
KXL goes by the trap shack. I was out near it the other day. No action at the moment but they are probably starting at Hardesty AB and coming south.
The river crossings were completed years ago so it should proceed quickly once they start.
This is 100% federal jurisdiction. That the LPC is abandoning its role and responsibility flies in the face of the strong federal philosophy of the party.
What Trudeau should have already announced is a billion dollar per day fine – paid by reducing tax revenue transfers – of BC for breaking the law. I think this is not only the correct path but it will be a politically popular one even in parts of BC.
oh jeezlouise. from the link, the klein finally spoke!! (spiiiiiiin spiiiiiiin spiiiiiin).
p.s., remember all, I DONT and have never twittered.
the good news all this shows how leftists can make *each other* squirm like pants full of fire ants, poison ivy and a real real bad case of shingles.
Well, hey, everyone in Parliament and in Victoria knows that electricity comes from a little hole in the wall, right?
I’ve put this forward before and it still works. I think the prairie prov’s should go it alone. all they need is 1 seaport. A pipe line to Churchill or York factory would pave the way for rail and other enterprises. The cost saving would allow for a number of top of the line ice breakers so it would be open year round. The little shit has proven to be as usless as the other turdo so tell him to suck eggs.
What this all comes down to is that idiot fringes of our population is dictating how the rest of us live. Enviros that don’t want a pipeline in case there is an oil spill. LBGTs, trans-gender two-spirited, whatever’s that demand we change our lifestyle, even our language, to suit them. Peaceniks that don’t think our veterans deserve compensation for allowing them their rights. Feminists that demand free abortion. First Nations that complain about damn near everything. Oh! and don’t forget the new immigrants and refugees that want us to change our laws and society to emulate the very countries they supposedly left for a better life at our expense. All of these idiot fringe groups are the reason we are governed by a government that couldn’t call a coin-toss. The best part of all of this is that not one of these groups could make it on their own if it wasn’t for the rest of us paying the freight for them. Its way past time to get them to belly up to the bar and pay their own tabs.
What “strong federal philosophy? I thought LPC was all about divide and conquer. The other driver of the LPC in its latest incarnation of course is that they have put globalist interests ahead of Canadian interests. I believe that is a major reason they choose not to act.
Boy doesn’t that just say it all. And it is the current Liberal government that enables all of this. They have to go at the very first opportunity.
*
“the federal government is stoking Western alienation”
actually, pierre-lite continues to stoke international alienation. his
attempt to get china to embrace his “social justice” agenda was
the latest faux pas.
his take on “peoplekind” is making “the budget will balance itself”
look like socratic genius.
*
This ‘dispute” is all manufactured for the Media and the public to chew on. Its all a game of “lets pretend”. Meathead, Nutley, Whoregun, Weasel, none of these pricks want Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, none of them! As long as Princess Meathead remains as PM no new pipelines will be built. There is no reason for this cult of a country to remain together, it is a basket case, just as intended. The Dominion is gone, long gone. Time for Trudopia to end as well, the sooner the better.
PET – Justin’s (alleged) father was as fierce a believer in a strong central government as any prime minister ever was. The LPC has always been the party in favour of more – not less centralization of power.
Notley is just posturing. The wine boycott is pandering to Albertans to make her look tough leading up to the election in only 15 months. And it just further pisses off B.C.ers leading to more pipeline opposition. Notley is fine with that. Don’t forget that Notley is and always has been anti-oil and is first and foremost a B.C. NDPer. Politically this looks like a win-win for both NDP parties. Unless Sock Boy steps in, which I find doubtful, Alberta will get screwed again.
Sheila Gunn Reid.
https://news.google.com/news/video/He85L8i98ps/djfw-DJLsBXokZMSI9_Qc9xD1L37M?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ned=ca
How’s the “a carbon tax will give us a social licence to build pipelines” theory working out? Environmentalists are liars. They will never keep their promises. Their cheerleaders in the media and politics are just as dishonest. Obviously, energy producing provinces should rescind existing carbon dioxide pricing schemes and not implement any additional carbon dioxide policies until commitments are fulfilled.
In more general terms, provinces who harm other provinces in this manner should be penalized financially. Federal transfer and/or equalization funds should be withheld from the offending province and redirected to the harmed province as compensation until the trade barriers, NIMBYism, extortion attempts, etc. are removed.
Sure, saying you support the building of the pipeline and then doing everything possible to prevent it, is really going to produce results. We couldn’t build the transcontinental railway today. We’d still be in caves. But they’d be lovely caves.
Oh yes the carbon tax – social license and revenue neutral to boot – and w e can afford to pay it because Jean promised to get rid of the GST ! Their lips are moving so you know they’re lying – err “joking “.
Ban aviation fuel and just sent bitumin down the line. See how BC likes that.
Who knew that Martyn Brown, former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell’s long-serving chief of staff, top strategic adviser to three provincial party leaders, and former deputy minister of tourism, trade, and investment. was such a rabid environmentalist?
In this rather too long and too verbose piece in the ‘Georgia Straight’, he tells PM Trudeau to “back off” because “we mean it”.
https://www.straight.com/news/1028986/martyn-brown-losing-it-trudeau-british-columbia
As I read it, he’s suggesting violence (ala Ipperwash, Oka) may be a necessary next step in achieving his political ends.
You can let him know (as I did) how you feel about his radical opposition to pipelines here:
bcpundit@gmail.com
The issue is the left-wing environmentalist.
They will not allow anything to be developed.
So, how does one silence them. The organizers go away with enough money.
Buy them off. Not with money to the organizations so that even more protests are organized. But individually. Cash in the pocket. Agreement is based on stopping their organizing activities.
Doesn’t feel at ethical. But the other alternative is no pipeline making billions. It is the cheapest solution with economic development still continuing.
This whole thing is Notely’s mess, every last ounce of it.
She was the one who was so naive as to think that if you paid off the environmental fringe with a carbon tax they would simply sit by and let you build pipelines. How utterly stupid could she be? Does she not even understand that the very purpose of a carbon tax is to force a reduction in fossil fuel consumption, and that the most ardent supporters of carbon taxes are those who want to see the oil sands shut down tomorrow?
Likewise did Notely honestly think that the idiot in Ottawa, that absolute joke of a PM we have, that doped up man-child feminist sissy who thinks he is so smart, did she think he would be of any help at all? He coulnd’t negotiate his way out of his diapers. And he too is also a carbon tax junkie.
Notley’s mess. Notley’s problem to solve. Notley’s election to lose next year, which she will.
All the sabre rattling by her is simply to try and distract attention from the fact that she is to blame. She did a deal with devil and the oil patch foolishly went along with it, and now she is in a corner.
Further to my previous point, Notley was quite happy to hang out with the some of the most rabid anti-oil sands people after she was elected, and even pay them as consultants to sit on useless advisory groups:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/premier-won-t-remove-tzeporah-berman-oilsands-advisory-group-1.3874637
And now Notley wonders why they are all coming back to bite her:
https://twitter.com/Tzeporah
As the saying goes, if you lie down with the devil, you wake up in hell.
Reading that article makes me realize that this situation is hopeless. There will not be a pipeline. These people are totally closed minded and irrational. You cannot deal with them, and they will mindless oppose the pipeline until there is a violent showdown. Trudeau will delay, delay, delay to avoid that. I am beginning to think that Canada should not be one country. While I used to view most Canadians as centrists, too many are now out there on the leftist fringe. We do not have common goals as a country. I have no idea what is next, but secession for Alberta and possibly Sask increasingly makes sense.
Or to quote Kate “Pleasing Your Enemies Does Not Turn Them Into Friends” !!
I would suggest building the pipeline out of hemp. Problem solved.
Correction: the oil patch foolishly went along with it, ….nope. The only ones in the Patch who did were CNRL, Cenovus & Suncor (owner of everything PetroCanada ever had). The deal was with GreenPeace & it was done on the sly, with no input from any other player in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Just those three companies. It was then presented to Notley as “the Deal”. She ran with it & “social license”.
As to Notley herself, her own past is going to kill her in the next election, hiring Tzeporah Berman of BC anti oil fame & Brain Topp from Ontario of anti oil fame, from outside the province of Alberta to “advise” Notley’s Ministers on resource development will be the nails in her coffin on voting day. The unionized employees of Alberta are one & all on Notley’s side, they were the ones behind the Royalty Review under Stelmach. Curiously, their pensions are all invested into oil & gas, pipelines, resources & real estate related to resources development country wide. Cue the screaming when Kenny axes teacher’s union members from the payroll…’cause “we’re broke”. Then all the middle management at Social services & health Care.
As to PM T2, well Gerald Butts is ex WWF, anti oil & sits nice & close to T2. He’s just blowing smoke & if you parse Jim Carr speaking on the issue, he is as much a slime ball as T2. Talks a good storey, but sucks to be you Alberta & Saskatchewan. Central Canada has it in for our newest members of “Confederation”.
Kenny needs to get a deal with Eagle Sprirt Energy Pipelines & Alaska & do an end run around BC. Those First Nations guys are pissed that the eco freaks are dictating future lives of FN who support resource development. If we can’t or we get stiffed by the feds, Alberta is OUT & the tracks are ripped up at the BC border.
Martyn Brown talks tough about Ipperwash or Oka, while thinking he has carte blanche support. Outside the Lower Mainland, any support is pretty thin. His forestry union buddies might have something to say about tree spiking not too long ago. This isn’t going to end well for this country or BC in particular & frankly, that’s fine with me.
Having to gag and support Wretched Knothead in any poll is close to impossible.
Sorry just one last post on this.
You cannot signal to the environmental lobby that you agree with them that fossil fuels are evil and should be eliminated, and then the next day say to them that you want to ship more oil. That is a bargaining position worth absolutely nothing.
Notley doesn’t have a clue. Neither does Trudeau. And while Horgan may be NDP the man has principles.
I will be very surprised if that second pipeline gets built.
Excellent post PO’ed.
“This time, the income isn’t being transferred from the West to Eastern Canada. It’s being transferred from Canada to the United States.”
Well at least those Eastern Bastids who violate our Constitution don’t get it.
I’d give it to the Russians before I’d give it to those Eastern Bastids and regulars on SDA know my love of the Russians.
Oh and just for posterity’s sake, IT ISN’T CANADA’S OIL. The resource BELONGS to the PEOPLE of ALBERTA!
“For the first time in many years, the federal government is stoking Western alienation”
FIRST time in many years, WTF?
As soon as Zoolander became Prime Minister he enacted a moratorium on tanker traffic off the West Coast for which I immediately despised him.
Did Zoolander enact a moratorium on tanker traffic off the East Coast, the coast where ICEBERGS such as the one that sank the Titanic regularly occur? NO.
And why did he not do so based on the exact same reason he did so off of the West coast?
Political reasons, that’s why. Quebec get’s all of it’s oil and gas from East coast tankers.
Western Canada made the mistake of thinking that Ottawa, particularly under PET, considered it to be an equal partner in Confederation with Ontario and Quebec. Ottawa believes that western Canada exists to serve those regions at its pleasure. Ottawa believes that western Canada exists to provide it with the resources it wants whenever it wants and western Canada should be grateful if it gets any return on our investment.
Rupertsland: a country whose time has come.
The next shoe to drop on BC is vehicle inspections at BC/AB border crossings. A lot of BC stuff comes across via truck, or personal vehicle. Suddenly, safety inspections, license, registrations & insurance, plus trade in local BC Bud, booze, fruits, veggies, lumber, you name it, if AB can get it somewhere else it will. Then squeeze BC trades & professionals from the workplace. Certification in AB, Sask, MB.
Most of what western Canada produces is shipped bulk, via rail, or pipeline. BC tries to interfere with that traffic in retaliation & it might bite off a rail car too far. Rail is federally regulated. Strike at Port of Vancouver or Rupert, they still have to deal with federal injunctions, not AB.
https://youtu.be/XSe3vQCRXvI
PJW finally makes a Turdeau video!
Rupertsland: love it! So, what part of the Confederation deal has been born out for Western Canada? Railroad? Checkmark. Indian land claims settled? No checkmark (at least in B.C.) Free trade between provinces? No checkmark. De facto colonies of Eastern Canada? BIG checkmark!!!!
PS – think any of our ‘compadres’ in Quebec care? Didn’t think so. Just so long as the tribute keeps flowing.
Rupertsland was a name coined by someone on SDA a few months ago. A few of us referred to it since then.
The railroad was one condition by which B. C. entered (bribed, perhaps?) Confederation. Don’t forget that there a number of Americans who wanted to annex that part of the continent (“54 40 or fight!” was their slogan).
Eastern Canada, however, isn’t the only region with a snooty attitude. Lotusland thinks that the part of B. C. that’s past Hope is populated by nothing but hillbillies, hayseeds, and bumpkins. The result is a resentment towards Vancouver and Victoria. I sense that every time I travel to northern B. C. to work on the house that I inherited from my father.
That region exists only to provide Lotusland with natural gas and electricity, but Lotuslanders are offended by the way both are produced–something about violating Mommy Gaia, I think.
This is going to turn out well for Trudeau. A radio poll out here in BC (on news 1130 this morning), cited that a majority of their respondents backed Alberta in this dispute. If I were Trudeau, I’d let this fester for a little while, then ram the pipeline down BC’s throat. That will give him the “just watch me” moment he so desperately needs.
Um yeah. The Canadian Milch Cow cartoon, published in like 1912… the west has never had a separation vote. Never. Not even one. We’ve never even used the extortion method Quebec has successfully employed 3 or 4 times now. It ain’t never gonna happen.
“No BC wine in Alberta – great! Alberta has no Molson brewery – it comes from BC.”
Alberta isn’t actually preventing BC wine from entering the province; its provincial liquor monopoly is simply going to stop purchasing it which, because it is a monopoly, means the stuff will disappear from the shelves at the wine and beer stores.
The BC government has no power to stop Molson from selling its beer in Alberta.
Mind you, the whole muddled affair shows what a sham it is for our Dear Leader and his children’s crusade in Ottawa to be renegotiating NAFTA when we can’t even get the free movement of goods right internally!