BC election results critical for Alberta

BC campaign looks like a referendum on oil marketing strategies vital to the Alberta economy.

by Gillian Steward

CALGARY — Never has more been at stake for Alberta in a BC provincial election than now. Viewed from Calgary, the campaign looks like a referendum on the oil marketing strategies that both the Alberta and federal governments — and the energy industry — have been banking on for years. So this time it really matters for Alberta which party — the Liberals or the NDP — emerges victorious.

Alberta is landlocked; it needs access to BC’s ports and coastline if the oil it produces is to get to markets other than the US.

But while various pipelines transporting oil and other fuels from Alberta have criss-crossed BC for more than 60 years, proposals for new or expanded pipelines have become potent symbols for Liberal Leader (and current premier) Christy Clark and NDP Leader Adrian Dix as they lay out their visions for the future of the province.

Both leaders have said no to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline that would reach from northern Alberta across the wilds of northern BC to Kitimat so diluted bitumen from the oilsands can be funneled onto tankers and shipped to China and other emerging markets.

Clark’s opposition is not as firm as Dix’s in that she would give the project the green light if five conditions were met. Her key demand is that BC receive a “fair share of the fiscal and economic benefits” commensurate with the risk to BC of leaks and spills.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has already nixed that idea. But Clark’s demand is vague enough that she could eventually settle the question of benefits to BC after the election.

Dix, on the other hand, is firmly opposed to Northern Gateway. He has pledged that within a week of being elected premier he will rescind BC’s agreement with the federal government for environmental assessment of the pipeline and undertake a made-in-BC assessment.

And just last week Dix announced he was having second thoughts about the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Kinder Morgan that would triple the amount of crude oil and fuels shipped from Alberta to tankers in Vancouver’s port.

“We have to wait to see the formal application, but I don’t think that the port of Metro Vancouver . . . should become a major oil export port,” Dix said.

There is no question that bitumen leaks are much harder to clean up than conventional crude oil, but that’s not the only concern of those opposed to pipeline expansion. They don’t want Alberta exporting any oil produced from the oilsands because it’s a carbon intensive process that has turned Alberta’s oilsands operations into Canada’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Mark Jaccard, a high-profile energy policy professor at Simon Fraser University known for his activism against climate change, is one such opponent. Jaccard recently told The Tyee that he is “extremely frustrated” by Clark’s unwillingness to see a difference between business investment that is relatively benign and pipeline projects carrying Alberta oil, which “wreak havoc on the entire planet.

“And it’s a real disappointment to see the media not able to distinguish between good jobs and bad jobs. What if it was nuclear weapons we were making, or heroin, or landmines?” Jaccard asked.

Needless to say, most Albertans don’t see it that way.  If three major pipelines are stalled — Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan and the Keystone XL in the US — Alberta could be left with a lot of oil that is going nowhere. And that could be devastating to an economy banking on significant expansion of oilsands production.

The Harper government also has a lot at stake in this provincial election since it has been furiously pushing oilsands development and export. For Prime Minister Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, this is much more than an interprovincial squabble; it’s about making sure oilsands development remains a key driver of the national economy.

Dix had a commanding lead in the polls until just recently so this election likely won’t be over until the last ballot is counted.

But whatever the outcome on May 14, it’s becoming clear that development of the Alberta oilsands is changing Canada. Oilsands development is changing interprovincial relationships; it’s changing our trading relationships, especially with the US; and it’s no doubt the main reason that the Harper government seems indifferent to the threat of climate change.

And that’s why this provincial election is about much more than the future of BC.

© Copyright 2013 Gillian Steward, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca