Roundup: Escalating costs for compliance

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The over-the-top rhetoric over energy projects in this country hasn’t been limited to the Teck Frontier mine decision. No, we got a new round of it yesterday when Bill Morneau disclosed that the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline costs have increased to $12.6 billion, in part because of environmental changes and accommodations for local First Nations. Predictably, both the Conservatives and project opponents lost their minds – the Conservatives melting down that this was somehow because of this government’s delays (erm, you know there were court processes in between, right?), apparently oblivious to the fact that this was the cost of compliance to get it built; the opponents because of the increased price tag over a project that they are certain will increase carbon emissions (even though it is more likely to decrease them as those contents would simply flow by rail otherwise). Jason Kenney, of course, takes the cake for his own outsized rhetoric on the matter.

From Washington DC, Kenney and his Mini-Me, Scott Moe, were both being remarked upon for how toned down their rhetoric has been of late (which I contend has to do with Trudeau and Freeland calling their bluff on their “equalization” bullshit), but they certainly kept up it up around Teck Frontier, and Alberta’s environment minister was thundering about the news reports of a possible federal “compensation package” if the approval was not granted – which was, of course, full of lies about the merits of the Teck proposal. And the notion that the federal government simply needs to “get out of the way” pretends that the biggest woes are the price of oil, and the fact that the US shale boom has hobbled the viability of the oilsands.

Meanwhile, Heather Scoffield makes note of the fact that all reason has gone out of the “debate” over the approval of the Teck Frontier mine. As if to illustrate the point, Matt Gurney repeats a bunch of the well-worn justifications for approving the project under the notion that Alberta needs jobs and not bailouts, without seeming to recognize that it’s not currently economically viable, while ignoring that delays to TMX were not because of government action but Indigenous court challenges under their constitutional rights, or that there is a reason why the Conservatives ensured there was Cabinet sign-off on these decisions. Chantal Hébert points out that the Liberals will lose whichever way they decide on this project.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau has brought Toronto Raptors’ president Masai Ujiri on his trip to Ethiopia and Senegal to help sell the message about the UN Security Council seat.
  • Canadians airlifted from Wuhan have arrived at CFB Trenton and are now in quarantine, none of them showing signs of the novel coronavirus.
  • The government is also asking people who have travelled from Wuhan to self-isolate for up to 14 days upon their return to Canada.
  • Our aging fleet of frigates has suffered ten fire and smoke incidents over the past two years – but they insist its not a systemic issue.
  • Hassan Diab is suing the government for $90 million for his extradition to France on trumped up charges.
  • The Conservatives are complaining that a recent judicial appointee donated to the Liberal Party, ignoring their own record of appointments. *cough*Vic Toews*cough*
  • Jason Kenney claims that John Baird is “seriously considering” entering the Conservative leadership race. (I am doubtful – Baird has skeletons in his closet).
  • In case you were wondering, Christy Clark has officially counted herself out of the Conservative leadership race.
  • Apparently unable to help himself, Doug Ford spent time in Washington praising Donald Trump and criticizing high-profile Democrats.
  • Unable to see much daylight between Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole, Paul Wells has a sit-down with Marilyn Gladu.
  • Susan Delacourt takes stock of the fallout on the anniversary of the Double-Hyphen Affair blowing up.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at how Canada’s continued waffling over the Huawei 5G decision adds to the uncertainty in our markets.
  • My weekend column has me losing my gods damned mind over the changes to the Senate rules being proposed by Senators Sinclair and Dalphond.

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Escalating costs for compliance”

  2. I’m with Scoffield, all semblance of rationality and compromise has gone out the window on this issue. Not just on Kenney’s side, but the Leap Manifesto hysterics who want solar paneling on every building by yesterday, and are either unable or unwilling to understand the pragmatic and sometimes disappointing realities of governing. I’m as fed up with Kenney proclaiming that a rejection would mean the country breaks apart and every Albertan will starve to death, as I am with McKibben’s first-world-problems hyperbole proclaiming Trudeau the architect of a climate holocaust. Enough already.

    But if “optics” is part of the realities of governing and the metric by which this is going to be decided rather than facts, then Trudeau probably loses out less by either kicking the can down the road with a non-decision decision to delay (and maybe delegating the press conference to Wilkinson), or simply writing off the perpetually unsatisfied Kenney Kudatah Klan and saying no. Otherwise he torches all political capital on two colicky-baby provinces he’s never going to win approval in anyway, and basically commits political suicide by trying to straddle the middle.

    Neither side will give an inch, so better to risk Kenney and the separatist loons crying out with another tantrum than a terminal PR fail with the environmental absolutists splintering the vote to the NDP, Greens and Bloc and costing him the next election — and a possible rupture in the Liberal Party that could see him ousted, and possibly even Freeland ostracized and her own possible leadership aspirations torched, if the inner workings of caucus undergo an anti-Alberta backlash. I was chatting with some folks last night who felt that Erskine-Smith could be the Paul Martin to Trudeau’s Jean Chrétien, or the Sanders to Freeland’s Clinton. There’s a clearly and increasingly vocal restlessness among the orange-ish wing of the party.

    Personally, I think he should kick the can and hope it dies down in the news cycle in favor of things like the spring budget, the CPC leadership race and whatever bozo eruptions come out of that and what’s going on in the U.S. I don’t know why he seems to feel the need to “live down his father’s demons” (per a 2017 Rolling Stone interview). What demons? The NEP wasn’t evil and its mythological role in costing Trudeau père the 1979 election is arguably overstated. Trudeau fils is a nice guy but he’s too nice. He needs to muster up a bit of his father’s calculating ruthlessness, do whatever is necessary to stay in office and ward off the far worse Conservatives who don’t give a damn about the environment at all. If that means picking a side, so be it, I guess. Rally the base, isolate the outright deniers, and let the Wexit bastards freeze in the dark.

  3. Canada is between a rock and an even harder place on the Huawei file. Considering Impeached POTUS unhinging directed at the British PM, we can expect his wrath if we choose to stay with the Chinese giant for trade emolument purposes. Consider the economic damage either way. Not looking good for us! As for Baird or whatever boob the Cons choose, they will wear the big hat and still have no cattle when it comes to policies that Canadians want to see going forward.

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