Favouritism shown by deal to Ontario
May 11th 2023
Only an obsession with so-called net-zero and the absolutely ferocious determination of the Liberal government to first wound the Canadian oil and gas industry, then to shut it down altogether — that’s the ultimate goal of the tendentiously named “just transition” — can explain why $13 billion can be thrown at what is at best a “future” market to a foreign corporate giant. It’s green, you see, and that is always, always an iron-clad, absolutely-cannot-go-wrong (the government guarantees it) business case.
Now while this great new industrial initiative is centred in Ontario it will have, shall we say, repercussions outside that province. The grand largesse and favouritism shown by this deal to Ontario will almost certainly provide fodder for the upcoming provincial election in Alberta.
The election will be, in effect, a referendum on whether Ottawa’s fixation on climate policies represents a direct interference in the economy of an entire province. Alberta has been landlocked, all pipeline projects halted or put off the agenda completely, and portrayed as the villain province in the combat against global warming.
It could, in its way, be the most significant provincial election — significant in terms of the Confederation itself — that we have seen in a long, long while. A deal like this massive $13-billion subsidy to vote-rich Ontario is not likely to be viewed with celebration in Alberta. It may, and I think should be, viewed as evidence that the green-inspired federal governance is definitively hostile to “outlying” provinces.
Voters in Alberta might be asking why an east-west pipeline (a very worthy project) or more West Coast ports to export Alberta oil and gas are not business cases, while fork-lifting billions to Volkswagen is. Why jobs from proven resources in Alberta are damned by the Liberal government, while jobs from a putative, future EV factory gets hallelujahs.
It’s a two-tier Confederation. The Alberta election should turn on Ottawa’s radical determination to shut down oil and gas under the cowardly euphemism of a “just transition.”
The election will provide an indication of just how long Alberta is willing to accept what amounts to economic discrimination by Ottawa without taking some radical measures to halt it. For it — the discrimination — cannot so blatantly continue without some substantial response from Albertans.
Credits to National Post, Rex Murphy
nationalpost.com
Now while this great new industrial initiative is centred in Ontario it will have, shall we say, repercussions outside that province. The grand largesse and favouritism shown by this deal to Ontario will almost certainly provide fodder for the upcoming provincial election in Alberta.
The election will be, in effect, a referendum on whether Ottawa’s fixation on climate policies represents a direct interference in the economy of an entire province. Alberta has been landlocked, all pipeline projects halted or put off the agenda completely, and portrayed as the villain province in the combat against global warming.
It could, in its way, be the most significant provincial election — significant in terms of the Confederation itself — that we have seen in a long, long while. A deal like this massive $13-billion subsidy to vote-rich Ontario is not likely to be viewed with celebration in Alberta. It may, and I think should be, viewed as evidence that the green-inspired federal governance is definitively hostile to “outlying” provinces.
Voters in Alberta might be asking why an east-west pipeline (a very worthy project) or more West Coast ports to export Alberta oil and gas are not business cases, while fork-lifting billions to Volkswagen is. Why jobs from proven resources in Alberta are damned by the Liberal government, while jobs from a putative, future EV factory gets hallelujahs.
It’s a two-tier Confederation. The Alberta election should turn on Ottawa’s radical determination to shut down oil and gas under the cowardly euphemism of a “just transition.”
The election will provide an indication of just how long Alberta is willing to accept what amounts to economic discrimination by Ottawa without taking some radical measures to halt it. For it — the discrimination — cannot so blatantly continue without some substantial response from Albertans.
Credits to National Post, Rex Murphy
nationalpost.com
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