Yesterday, the federal government announced $1.6 billion in help for the Alberta energy sector – but insisted it’s not a subsidy. $1 billion of it was in loans for exporters to invest in technologies and address working capital needs or exploring new markets; $500 million from to help smaller oil and gas businesses weather the uncertainty, $50 million from the Clean Growth Program, and $100 million in economic diversification projects. It wasn’t something like federal funding for companies to remediate orphan wells, for example. And predictably, Rachel Notley and various other Conservatives immediately dismissed this as not asking for money but wanting “the handcuffs removed,” which seems to me to be code for waving a magic wand to get pipelines built immediately, despite the fact that unless they plan to bulldoze through the Indigenous consultation process, is something the government can’t do. And Andrew Scheer? He went full drama queen with a petulant press release that accused Trudeau of trying to destroy Alberta, sounding very much like a jealous suitor wailing “He can’t love you like I will!”
Here’s the full breakdown in a press release from Natural Resources
– $1 B from Export Development Canada
– $500 M from BDC
– $50 M from the Clean Growth Program
– $100 from the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/RadV4Rk4GM— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) December 18, 2018
Meanwhile, Andrew Scheer’s latest release is a master class of melodrama. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/E78XEksCmz
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 18, 2018
More to the point, the federal government can’t just ram through the approvals for Trans Mountain, given that the last time they tried to cut corners, the Federal Court of Appeal objected and rescinded their approvals and would do so again, hence why they’re going the route of doing what the court laid out, and that takes time. There is no magic wand. Killing Bill C-69 won’t solve anything because the current system isn’t working, and while the bill is flawed and open to amendment at the Senate, Conservative senators have not consented to any committee hearings before the Senate’s slated (late) return in February (and I have heard various reasons for this, both in opposition to the bill, and because they are pushing back against the committee chair, who they accuse of doing the bidding of Senator Peter Harder). The tanker ban on BC’s north coast? That’s demanded by many of the coastal First Nations. Scrapping the carbon tax? Won’t change anything because it has nothing to do with the oil price differential and oil companies have been asking for a carbon price so that they can have predictability when it comes to climate demands. And then there’s the bogeyman about foreign funded “paid protesters” that the Conservatives blame for everything, despite the fact that they don’t control the courts or the economics of projects. That won’t stop Scheer or Jason Kenney from offering the people of Alberta another vial of snake oil, promising quick approval on pipelines that they can’t actually deliver on.
Meanwhile, amidst more lies and grievance narratives around the federal equalisation programme, Trevor Tombe drops a reality bomb about how the system works and why. Because amidst the demands for magic wands and offering snake oil, the Jason Kenneys of this country will continue to lie about how equalisation works to keep people angry in the hopes of getting electoral advantage for it. We need more people to tell the truth about the system if we’re to keep a lid on the anger and try to do something meaningful to address it rather than simply bow to grievance culture and fabrications.
Tombe is also bringing, essentially, books to what has historically been a gut-feeling fight.
Equalization has long been a lightning rod for Albertan anxieties about Quebec, about Ontario, about not having a big enough seat at the table. It's not really just about equalization.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 18, 2018
The feds, for instance, send twice as much money out every year as direct transfers to elderly Canadians as they send out in equalization.
People are comfortable "equalizing" low-income elderly people, but not in equalizing the governments where they disproportionately live?
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 18, 2018