Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Oliver ‘supportive’ of Redford's proposed national energy strategy

Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver likes Alberta’s proposal for a national energy strategy, though he is making an effort not to call it that.

Premier Alison Redford, who has championed the notion since winning her job last fall, met with Mr. Oliver in Edmonton Friday morning. They talked “infrastructure in B.C.” – presumably, the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline – and about her notion of a Canadian energy strategy. He emerged to say much of the work is already under way.

“We of course are entirely supportive of the collaborative approach to energy development, involving the federal government and all the provinces,” Mr. Oliver told reporters. “We’ve avoided the nomenclature because it has a certain sensitivity in some areas.”

No area would be more sensitive than Alberta, where Pierre Trudeau’s failed National Energy Program still, decades later, raises the ire of voters in the province.

Ms. Redford has massaged the language in hope, largely, of leveraging a pipeline beyond her province’s borders.

As Mr. Oliver stood answering questions about resource development in Ontario’s so-called Ring of Fire, Quebec’s Plan Nord and Alberta’s oil sands, Ms. Redford said they’re precisely the types of major projects an energy strategy would pull together.

“A lot of what we’ve talked about is part of what a Canadian energy strategy involves,” Ms. Redford said.

The groundwork for such a strategy – either a de facto, piecemeal effort as suggested by Mr. Oliver, or a formalized one as Ms. Redford hopes – was partially laid during last summer’s meeting of provincial, territorial and federal environment ministers, Mr. Oliver said. It was a meeting held in Alberta, no less.

“We delineated five action plans. One of them was regulatory reform, and we’ve introduced that legislation, and we’re moving forward on it, and I’ve talked to the premier about some very specific things we can work (on) together,” he said, referring to Ottawa’s plan to do away with much of the time-consuming environmental approval process for energy projects. “I would say we’re moving together on this, and we’re quite hopeful other provinces and territories will be in agreement.”

Original Article
Source: the globe and mail
Author: Josh Wingrove 

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