On one hand: resource-hungry China, which is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to secure global commodity supplies and control its own destiny.
On the other hand, resource-rich Canada, which is so paralyzed by petty regional politics, competing provincial agendas and the sky-is-falling rhetoric of environmental pressure groups that it runs the risk of squandering its economic future.
While China’s central planners and state-controlled firms forge ahead with a clear-eyed plan to lock up global energy supplies — witness China National Offshore Oil Co.’s (CNOOC’s) blockbuster $15.1 billion bid for Nexen Inc., unveiled Monday — Canada’s national energy strategy remains little more than a poorly articulated idea in search of a roadmap.
Although Alberta Premier Alison Redford has worked hard to get other provincial leaders to back the idea — including Ontario Premier Dalton (“Dutch Disease”) McGuinty, who laid down arms just long enough to join Redford over dinner last week — Canada’s regional fault lines run deep, pitting energy producers like Alberta and Saskatchewan against consumers like Quebec and Ontario.
The resource-rich western provinces are hardly on the same page, either. Witness the strident opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline on the West Coast, and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark’s increasingly frosty view of the $5.5 billion project.
Enbridge’s pledge last week to spend a further $500 million on pipeline safety measures in the wake of a scathing U.S. watchdog’s report on its handling of a 2010 pipeline spill in Michigan has done little to defuse B.C.’s concerns.
Of course, talk is cheap, and it’s often cheapest when it springs from the mouths of embattled politicians like Clark, who trails her NDP rival in the polls. Thus, if Redford shows some new-found willingness to meet B.C.’s demands for a “fair share” of the fiscal benefits of Enbridge’s proposed bitumen pipeline to Kitimat, perhaps there is still room for a deal.
With Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial leaders slated to meet later this week at the Council of the Federation in Halifax, this would be an excellent opportunity to show some tangible progress on that front. But if anything, the battle lines seem to be hardening.
“Every Canadian, no matter what province they call home, expects that energy development is done with a high degree of environmental safeguards,” Redford said Monday, after B.C. laid out its conditions for supporting the project.
“This is why a rigorous environmental review is underway by the National Energy Board. It is why (Enbridge) has committed an additional $500 million for increased monitoring and safety measures. These efforts ... significantly mitigate the environmental risk and weaken the B.C. government’s argument for compensation based on potential risk.”
Maybe so. But since most of the economic benefits of the pipeline would flow to Alberta and to oilsands producers, B.C.’s demands for a piece of the upside — as well as protection from the downside — don’t seem unreasonable.
“As Alberta has said repeatedly, and as we saw in the recent report from the Senate’s Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, accessing new energy markets is a national imperative. It is essential for the economic benefit of Canada,” Redford added.
“Leadership is not about dividing Canadians and pitting one province against another — leadership is about working together. That’s when our country benefits ... Through a Canadian Energy Strategy, the provinces and territories together will reach their full energy potential and contribute to increased prosperity and a higher standard of living for all Canadians.”
Fine words. And fundamentally, I agree with Redford’s goals. After all, energy is Canada’s top export, and Asia is the world’s fastest-growing market for our energy products. Surely, it’s in the national interest for Canada to build the export pipelines it needs to access Asian markets.
But words and moral suasion aren’t enough. As China knows, when push comes to shove, money talks. You have to write some big cheques if you want to secure your future.
That’s what Alberta will have to do, one way or another, if it wants the Northern Gateway project to proceed.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Gary Lamphier
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