I cannot help but wonder what the anti-oil activists who have been working hard to stop the Trans Mountain expansion project are actually accomplishing for themselves.
Their efforts are not resulting in any reduction in global emissions, as they are not stopping the United States or other countries from ramping up oil production.
Canadian oil continues to be produced, but we are forced to sell it at a massively discounted price to the United States and are missing out on jobs and revenue.
What’s more, we are now shipping oil by rail at record levels, when pipelines are a less risky method of transportation.
The Trans Mountain expansion is a common sense project for Canadians and no amount of theatrics on the part of anti-oil protestors will change that.
The Trudeau Liberal government in Ottawa has been anything but friendly towards Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and the fact that Alberta has an NDP government has made a bad situation worse.
For one thing, the NDP appointed Tzeporah Berman, a leading anti-oil activist, to the government’s Oil Sands Advisory Group. Berman recently spoke at the Alberta Teachers’ Association conference, where she vocally opposed the pipeline and any further investment in the oil industry. She proposed that Albertans “figure out how we build a new economy,” whatever that means.
Following Berman’s address, Premier Rachel Notley distanced herself from Berman and told the teachers that Berman’s approach would be a disaster for the climate and for jobs. It is about time the premier distanced herself from Berman, though it is unfortunate she never owned up to her role in giving Berman a platform in this province in the first place.
However, the premier’s own policy of imposing a massive carbon tax on Albertans is also a disaster for the climate and for jobs, and she continues to defend it while the number of provincial governments standing up against Trudeau’s carbon tax plan continues to grow.
The NDP told Albertans their carbon tax would give us social licence for the Trans Mountain pipeline, and we know that did not happen.
As Stephen Harper noted in a recent interview, carbon taxes are not an environmental policy. Carbon taxes are about revenue. They are merely about the government wanting more money.
There is a reason I continually talk about Trans Mountain, because its implications are significant and the lessons are important.
Albertans are struggling and government policy matters. The truth is, when the economy is thriving, we are in a better position to innovate and even further improve our environmental standards.
We need a government that can get our province back on track.
- Jason Nixon is the MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.
