“Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.”
That’s a famous old quote coined by Prime Minister Mackenzie King describing his approach to conscription during World War Two, known in the annals of Canadian history as a politically savvy approach of vagueness, seeking to please both sides of the debate for as long as possible.
That seems to be Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach to pipelines.
Despite intense lobbying from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and other Canadians who see the energy sector as the key to unlocking Canada’s stagnant economic growth, Carney chose to leave a pipeline off his first major national projects list but did not rule out adding one to a future list.
Instead, Carney’s list of projects the federal government would fast track include many projects that are already well underway.
This could have led Smith to blow a gasket.
As Smith has long reasoned, with Trudeau-era laws in place that are standing in the way of private-sector supporters of new pipeline projects from coming off the sidelines, it will be hard to get a major pipeline project done. Federal action needs to be taken to change that.
At a minimum, Carney could have announced that the federal government will repeal the bad laws that are currently in place – including the federal emissions cap and the northern B.C. tanker ban – to ensure that a pipeline project is viable for his second list of major national projects, expected to come in a matter of months.
As Smith noted, “Why would an oil sands company, in this environment, knowing that there’s an emissions cap that would result in them curtailing 2.1 million barrels of production, pledge new barrels to a pipeline that would go to a coast where there’s a tanker ban?”
Even though there was no new pipeline on list number one, and Carney hasn’t pledged to take the actions needed to get a pipeline on list number two, Smith remains optimistic.
“Now his team is in place, my team is in place, and we’re having very constructive discussions,” Smith said.
For the sake of Canada’s energy future, let’s hope so.
The Liberals have been all talk and no action on the energy file for years. Smith’s optimism is counting on that Liberal intransigence to change.
After all, many of the Liberals that held senior portfolios in the Trudeau Cabinet, which stymied the energy sector’s development for a decade with damaging federal laws, surround Carney at the Cabinet table today.
There’s also the question of where Carney himself stands.
Carney was a champion of the net zero movement at the United Nations. He has also insisted on giving B.C.’s anti-energy premier, David Eby, a veto over potential future projects that go through his province. Those are two reasons why so many Canadians remain skeptical that a northern B.C. pipeline, Smith’s favoured pipeline project, will come to fruition.
For Smith’s pipeline to become a reality, Carney will have to once again become a political chameleon. He first embraced such a posture when he repealed the consumer carbon tax, which Carney had long been a proponent of before entering politics.
He will again have to change his spots and reject signature Trudeau-era climate change legislation, as well has his own pledge to give Eby a veto over projects running through B.C., to see a pipeline project come to fruition.
It may seem unlikely that Carney will change his spots again on the climate issue, but that’s something Smith seems to be banking on.
It’s either that or, at a minimum, Smith is giving Carney some more time before publicly slamming him for failing to join the common-sense energy movement that wants to see more Canadian pipelines built.
If ever there was a time for the prime minister to make a case for more pipelines to fuel future economic growth, it’s now. Canada’s economy is on the verge of recession, jobless claims are soaring, and the deficit is through the roof.
For the sake of our collective economic future, let’s hope Carney is doing more than just letting Smith down slowly when it comes to pipelines.
Originally published here