Harper, speaking on the heels of a one-day North American Leaders Summit at the White House, said the mere fact that cancellation of the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline is possible leaves Ottawa with no choice but to aggressively pursue other export markets to safeguard Canada’s economic future.
Harper stressed that with U.S. public opinion “pretty overwhelmingly” in favour of Keystone, he remains confident the project to as much as double the southern flow of Alberta bitumen will ultimately win approval from Washington.
“Barack Obama has told me repeatedly this decision will be made on its merits. I have no reason not to believe him,” Harper said during a wide-ranging forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center think-tank in Washington.
Describing Canada as a “captive supplier,” forced to sell oil below market value due to bottlenecks in U.S. infrastructure, Harper said approval of the new pipeline would have no bearing on his government’s decision to look elsewhere for buyers.
“Would approval of this change our mind? The answer is no. The very fact that a ‘No’ could be said (to Keystone) underscores the urgency of expanding our export markets,” Harper said.
The $7.6 billion (U.S.) pipeline project by TransCanada would send oilsands crude from northern Alberta across the border through several U.S. states to Texas refineries. The cross-border portion is in regulatory limbo, with no decision expected until after the election.
The Harper government has made its oil market ambitions abundantly clear to Canadians, not least in last week’s federal budget, with provisions aimed at streamlining the approvals process to build a Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast, opening Alberta to Asian markets.
But his remarks to an invitation-only audience of 350 marked the first time Harper has said it so plainly to Americans.
Speaking one-on-one for 30 minutes with former California congresswoman Jane Harman, a Democrat who now heads the Woodrow Wilson Center, Harper then fielded questions submitted by the audience, which included representatives from groups both for and against the Keystone pipeline.
The format offered no opportunity for follow-up questions and Harper had no difficulty fielding environmental queries, casually restating the Canadian case for Alberta oil.
When asked about the possibility that carbon offsets might be priced into the Canadian resource to counter its heavier contribution to global warming, Harper demurred, saying any regulation should come at the “emissions” stage of the fuel cycle — a tailpipe approach that would treat all fossil fuels the same, Canadian or otherwise.
The wide-ranging conversation touched on the resiliency of Canadian banking, the relative merits of Canadian health care and Ottawa’s continuing struggles for approval to build a new bridge to replace the privately owned Ambassador crossing between Detroit and Windsor, which accounts for as much as a quarter of Canada-U.S. truck trade.
Harper described the obstacles posed by Detroit’s Moroun family as “ludicrous,” but he predicted the project will nevertheless proceed “before I leave office.”
On a question about hydropower, Harper suggested there is “lots of capacity” for Canada to “dramatically increase” the flow of electricity to the U.S. beyond Quebec and Manitoba, the two leading export provinces.
“This is one form of energy we will not be exporting to Asia,” he added with a smile.
Canada’s ‘profile challenge’
Stephen Harper was asked at his Washington talk to name “the greatest myth” Americans hold when it comes to perceptions of Canada.
“The greatest misunderstanding, the greatest challenge, is that the relationship is so deep and so close for the most part, so seamless, that in spite of its enormous size, Americans simply do not understand the scale and economic consequence of it,” said Harper.
“It’s been a profile challenge . . . Occasionally we find ourselves getting side-swiped — take the Buy America provisions, or other things — by policies that have absolutely nothing to do with Canada.”
But Harper said he has learned not to take it personally, citing advice he once received from Tom Donahue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“He said the only reason America sometimes treats Canadians badly is, ‘We view Canadians not as a foreign country but as family. And that’s how we treat family.’ ”
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Mitch Potter
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