Maybe it’s progress or maybe it’s hot air. We’ll know soon enough. The desire to seek “improved” terms probably means that a big enough slush fund would do the trick.
TC Energy Corp.’s Energy East pipeline, which would have carried western Canadian crude to refineries in eastern Canada, was mothballed in 2017 over regulatory hurdles and intense political opposition in Quebec. A separate proposal known as GNL Quebec to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline and export terminal in the Saguenay region was rejected by both federal and provincial authorities on environmental grounds.
Both would still be turned down if presented under the same terms today, but if they were improved, it’s open for debate, Charette told reporters Wednesday. “If we address these concerns today, these are projects that could be accepted,” he said.
It’s BS. This is generational insanity.
TC Energy should hold back and wait for more thousands of people to freeze to death as a result of energy poverty.
Hopefully TC Energy had enough of their cash flushed down the toilet on Keystone to know not to move forward at the lightest sign of cooperation.
“If we address these concerns today, these are projects that could be accepted,”
We should start talking when Quebec puts up a $billion deposit. Otherwise they will do the Charlie Brown football move. If any proposal doesn’t come from Quebec it’s DOA. Make it a Bombardier/SNC Lavelin partnership and there would be enough Liberal graft to make it fly.
Quebec is and always has been the cancer on Canada
The Brits and successive generations of Canadians refused to excise the cancer and it is still with us.
Melanie Joly: “At the same time, we have environmental objectives. We have to reduce our CO2 emissions.”
That’s the project killer in a nutshell. It means way higher costs and repeated delays.
CO2 is not a problem. Melanie, if you think it is then please put a plastic bag snugly over your head and tape it tightly around your neck. That will at least solve your CO2 problem. As for me, I know and understand that more CO2 in the atmosphere would be quite beneficial, not less. The very stupid think that we should try and reduce one of the gasses that actually gives us life and makes the planet greener. Bit of a contradiction there for the morons who call themselves “green”.
Equalization should be tied to a per barrel, and or per cubic metre basis, or zero.
Same with reserves.
Shot in the dark here, but what if Alberta threatens to withhold transfer payments until Quebec wises up?
I’ve been saying for a while now… Alberta (and SK) should tell Ottawa, Ontario, and Quebec to FOAD, but then, Alberta needs a land corridor through Quebec for the pipeline, so there will probably have to be some negotiations, mediated by (hopefully a friendly) federal government.
(I Sooooo want Quebec to vote “yes” in round 3.)
fc – I don’t know how Alberta could withhold transfer payments. As I understand the process, Ottawa takes in all the taxes and then allocates the “surplus” (forget the deficit and debt) to the “have not” provinces based on some weird formula. I do know that, while Alberta’s revenue includes royalties from oil and gas, Québec’s does NOT include revenue from hydro sales to the US.
There are many things that don’t “count” towards Quebec’s equalization, thus insuring that they always get the most, and also doesn’t include the activities that Quebec chooses not to do, like having an oil industry.
They also have a lovely program called “The Quebec Abatement” – The Quebec Abatement consists of a reduction of 16.5 percentage points of federal personal income tax for all tax filers in Quebec.
Alberta could simply set up their own tax system like Quebec has, hence no need for Ottawa
AB would have to join the US.
Equalization is a federal program. It’s cash taken out of income taxes and other revenue the feds steal from individuals and corporations.
Alberta never has It’s hands on a dime. It’s stolen at source.
The formula is pure flim flam. A fiction designed by the feds and the ‘have not’ provinces. The starting point is, ” What’s in this for quebek”. Once quebekkie gets theirs the rest of the coyotes pile on.
It’s what makes us Canadians…
I wish the BQ would run candidates in the west. They’d get votes!
“ Shot in the dark here, but what if Alberta threatens to withhold transfer payments until Quebec wises up?”
The “equalization” process is entrenched in the constitution.
Thanks to Peter Laugheed and Alan Blankney. (Roy Romanow).
Only two ways to change this. Quebec and or Ontario agree to an amendment. Pipe dream.
Or a unilateral Declaration of Independence by the western provinces. The “hammer”.
Sorry for being a stuck record.
Charge the Quebec government $15B per year, give half to Alberta for lost revenue and distribute the other half to drivers and home owners in Ontario and the Maritimes since we’re paying more for petroleum products refined from foreign bought oil.
Alternatively bring the pipeline to the shore of the St Lawrence near Cornwall and build a pumping station to load tankers. You could also build a refinery in Eastern Ontario to supply the east.
Is there any constitutional ground that allows one province to block the trade of another?
Also, isn’t the Quebec Pension Plan, their version of Canada Pension Plan, highly invested in Saudi oil?
Just watched Jordan Peterson “A message to Canada”.
6 hours old on You Tube.
Makes the case that if Trump only needs to offer Western Canada a better deal than it gets from The Confederated Kleptocracy,then Alberta is gone.
I noticed he failed to mention another massive selling point,that Trump can troll us with.
Rights and Freedoms that actually exist .
Constitutional Protection,which even when abused seems to self correct.
Not something we can say about “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” which is an empty promise constructed on a lie.
And the empty promises of east west Pipelines,now that our neighbours have realized how naked they are..
They have the same value as Dear Leader’s “I will resign….promise”
Look what clings on to power,obstructing the popular will of the citizen?
Why its Mr 22% and his loyal hence-thangs,who loudly and proudly tell Canadians that “Liberal Party Leadership is so much more important than The country of Canada’s affairs.”
Cannot wait for the Separation Referendum,which should be part and parcel of the upcoming Federal Election.
For we have very little in common with Eastern Canada.
Confederation is farce.
And what calls itself “Conservative” here is best described as Fat Ford.
Still a Statist Thug of the lying Order.
And if Northern BC,Alberta and Saskatchewan vote to go,the Yukon and NWT will have no choice.
Creating a continuous nation from the Mexican Border to the Beaufort Sea.
One dollar.
Real individual rights and freedoms and no need for passports to take extended road trips.
And best of all,the east can keep their debt.
They spent it,let ’em pay it.
As an extra bonus ,if the Welfare State does not change its ways,we will be able to buy up the bankrupt regions for 25 cents on the dollar.
And the really sad bit,for those of us who loved Canada,is that Confederated Canada does not have the wealth to make Alberta and the rest of the west a better offer.
They will have to steal it from the West to bribe us with ..
Those regions make one hell of a big 51st State,with a tiny population sandwiched between the Dakota’s ,Montana and Alaska.
an excellent idea
Well John, I will suggest that AB gets on with it. Just make sure you leave a seat at the table for true conservative Canadians who really hate what we are living through.
Thanks J.R. – so well said.
Separation is the only reasonable option for survival of the “West!” The country is long gone, a mere shadow of what it once was.
The Communist veto.
The Quebec tail still wags the dog.
“If we address these concerns today, these are projects that could be accepted,”
Bullshit!
Those “concerns” were just excuses used to shut the projects down. The same people are still just as opposed to fossil fuel projects. They would find plenty of other “concerns” that would “need to be addressed” before they could be allowed to go forward.
And then the natives and environuts would file lawsuits to stop them. And if that didn’t work, the governments would demand new environmental impact studies because the ones that passed were “expired”.
And then after 15 or 20 years when they finally get the go-ahead, the regulatory burden would make it too expensive and no company would build any of them.
I think one of the problem is environmentalist propaganda and disinformation and that goes for most of Canada. Oil is evil and will destroy mother earth, etc etc. The Feds are 100% behind this too. B.C. is hardly smarter than Quebec in this respect. In the case of Quebec, there are zero alternative sources of information about anything that isn’t MSM. I’ve lived in the Saguenay for a total of 4 years, courtesy of Her Majesty. In a relatively isolated region, it is easy to control information and 90% of it came from CBC.
In 2013, 47 people were killed 30 buildings destroyed (39 others had to be demolished) in a rail accident in downtown Lac Megantic which was pretty much destroyed.. The train was headed for the Irving refinery in Saint John NB. You can spin this accident two ways: Oil is evil, look at what happened. Or a pipeline would have prevented this. Presently trains loaded with crude go right through the middle of several cities.
Pipelines are being opposed because the powers that be don’t want Western oil on the market and use control of information to ensure it stays unpopular.
Why not build refineries at the oil fields?
Jobs refining, Jobs transporting.
Was led to believe that is called Value Added.
Not being a commodity price taker.
Refining at source into a multitude of products each would need a distribution chain.
Refined products tend to be volatile increasing the risk of transport. Crude or upgraded oil tends to be safer.
Refined products have a shelf life. Transporting to a local refinery allows better control for refining to market conditions. Crude can be stored and fed into production trains as needed
Refining at the source sounds good but the complications introduced increases costs. Economics rule it out – regretfully.
There’s a refinery in Montreal, and Quebec City (south shore), cause there’s many products, gas, fuel oil, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel trucked to market. Otw multiple piplines for each product.
Proper adherence to safety protocols would have prevented the disaster. There wasn’t just crude in one or two of those rail tankers.