Mulcair warns Americans of Chinese energy takeovers in Canada

WASHINGTON – Federal Opposition leader Tom Mulcair stirred American fears of Chinese intrusion into the North American energy market Wednesday by accusing the Harper government of negotiating a secret treaty with China that will give that country unfettered access to Canadian oil and gas reserves.

The American government has been concerned about Chinese entry into North America since 2005 when it refused to approve the takeover of energy giant Unocal by the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Mulcair indicated in a speech at the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute that Americans should be concerned about China’s growing influence in Canada’s energy sector after Canada last year approved the $15.1-billion CNOOC’s takeover of Calgary-based oilsands giant Nexen Inc.

Because Nexen has U.S. interests, the deal also had to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The committee’s approval was given last month.

Mulcair said CNOOC and PetroChina have invested more than $25 billion in the Canadian oil and gas sector. Citing a report by the Conference Board of Canada, he added that by 2020, “China will be Canada’s second-largest investor largely in oil and gas.”

He warned Americans that a treaty called the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which he said has been “negotiated by the federal government in total secrecy,” gives Chinese companies the right to sue the federal government if they don’t get the same access to Canada’s resources as Canadian companies.

“Under the terms of FIPA, these lawsuits would be launched in secret — in front of a binding international tribunal — and outside of the rule of Canadian law,” he said.

“Taken together, FIPA and CNOOC’s takeover of Nexen effectively limit the ability of Canadian governments to independently control our own natural resource policy, while ceding enormous control over our resources to a foreign power.”

International Trade Minister Ed Fast reacted swiftly to Mulcair’s comments, saying it was “shocking” that Mulcair had gone to the U.S. to “undermine our government’s efforts to promote economic growth, investment and job creation in Canada.”

In a statement to Postmedia News, he said Mulcair was “spreading falsehoods about our government’s commitment to protecting Canadian investments in China through a bilateral investment treaty.”

“If he had actually read this treaty – which was tabled in the House of Commons almost six months ago – he would know that it will give Canadian investors in China the same protection against discrimination that foreign investors have long had under Canada’s current laws.”

Mulcair said that while Chinese investment can be beneficial for both Canada and the U.S., both countries have to be aware that China is a communist country that does not share the same values of human rights and labour practices.

Meanwhile, Wednesday afternoon, a group of Republican congressmen emerged from a meeting at the Capitol with U.S. President Barack Obama. According to one media report, Texas representative John Carter told reporters Obama had indicated he intends to approve the 1,800-km Keystone XL pipeline that will bring oilsands bitumen to Texas heavy-oil refineries.  No other information was given, and his office could not immediately confirm the report.

Mulcair opposes the pipeline because, he says, it means a loss of a potential 40,000 jobs for Canadians. Mulcair argues the oil should be refined in Canada and then brought to international markets through pipelines to the east coast.

He noted that one American energy company, Volero, this week received a permit to ship refined oil from Texas refineries to Quebec City to supply its Ultramar gas stations.

Mulcair has not, however, publicly expressed his opposition to Keystone XL in his speeches here. He told reporters after his speech he doesn’t want to interfere in a strictly American decision.

In private, however, he has met with American lawmakers such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, where he expressed his belief that the oilsands should be developed in a sustainable fashion with strict environmental regulations and with the oil refined and marketed through Canadian refineries and ports.

Mulcair is essentially raining on the parade of Tory cabinet ministers and provincial premiers from Alberta and Saskatchewan who have recently visited the U.S. to promote Keystone as a secure, environmentally responsible energy supply.

In his speech, Mulcair accused the Harper government of failing to impose existing environmental regulations to assure that resource development is environmentally sustainable.

Under an NDP government, Canada would impose a policy of sustainable resource development based on the principle that polluters pay the full cost of environmental damage, he said.

The principles of sustainable development will “shape the world community’s global trade relationships more than any other … and those who fail to recognize that reality will fail to thrive,” he said.

Mulcair made only a passing reference to the U.S. debate over the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring about 830,000 barrels a day of raw bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas.

Original Article
Source: edmontonjournal.com
Author: William Marsden