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‘The project I’ve been looking at is a revival of the Northern Gateway project to the port of Prince Rupert,’ says Premier Danielle Smith
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By See Stories From Rick Bell Here
What does Alberta Premier Danielle Smith want? What does Smith want right now?
What does she want from Prime Minister Mark Carney?
Smith presented Carney with nine demands. She wants Carney to roll back the harmful Liberal laws and regulations attacking Alberta and Alberta’s oilpatch.
She gave him six months. End of October. Near Halloween.
If Carney isn’t moving in Alberta’s direction it could get scary.
The premier answers this scribbler by saying she will express what she wants right now in practical terms.
Carney says he’s interested in fast-tracking projects, here is Smith’s project.
“The project I’ve been looking at is a revival of the Northern Gateway pipeline to the port of Prince Rupert,” says Smith.
“Because when you look at that particular route it gives us access to all the Asian markets and gives us a preference of being able to get our product there over any country in the world.”
Smith talks about eight to 10 days to South Korea and Japan and on to the east coast of India with all the other nations in between.
“Being able to create new markets there with additional export of bitumen is going to be incredibly important,” says the Alberta premier.
She adds the biggest refinery of heavy oil is in India.
Four South Korean refineries have already received shipment of Trans Mountain heavy oil.
“They like it and they want more of it,” says Smith.
What does it all mean?
Well the pipeline would have to be fast-tracked so you don’t have to wait 10 years for an approval “and so it is de-risked to a point where somebody will come along and build it,” says Smith.
If you get someone wanting to build the pipeline with the fast-track approval and that pipeline goes to the port of Prince Rupert there can no longer be a tanker ban because you need the boats to get the product overseas.
The Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline route as proposed in 2010.norther Keith Kobylka/Edmonton Journal
For Smith, you also can’t very well have a cap on oil emissions because “if you want to increase your exports you can’t have an emissions cap that acts as a production cap.”
And, Smith adds, Ottawa can’t layer on their own carbon tax regime because people won’t invest here.
If Carney makes all that happen, for Smith, that would signal he is serious about changing things.
“That’s what I’ll be looking at as an indicator of whether the federal government is going to meet us part
Well, what if it doesn’t happen?
Smith was hopeful when she spoke with Carney two weeks ago.
But Carney is the master of double-talk and, in his inner circle, he has a lot of the seat-warmers from the Liberal government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau and a few like green guru Steven Guilbeault who was just talking down more pipelines.
There is also a new environment minister in the Carney Liberal government who is cast as a Guilbeault clone.
Smith says she knows of several projects being floated stateside. These projects would get more Alberta oil and gas into the United States.
“What do you think it’s going to do to national unity if it’s easier for Alberta to get its product to the United States than through British Columbia or through eastern Canada?”
The premier asks whether words were said “just to win elections” or “whether words were said because we’re serious about trading with each other and supporting each other and we’re serious about finding new markets for our products.”
Smith says we will know pretty soon whether or not Alberta is going to have to switch its focus to expanding its relationship with the United States or whether our fellow Canadians are serious about Team Canada being on Team Alberta.
There is some hope.
Smith thinks it is “fantastic” Quebec Premier Francois Legault figures maybe, just maybe, a pipeline could pass through the northern part of his home province.
The premier sees it as a sign premiers and provinces want to work together.
Albertans will remain skeptical until we get well beyond talk, talk and more talk.
Alberta has been burned too many times to accept anything until it is carved in stone.
And Smith, who is trying to get a new deal for Alberta working within a united Canada, knows full well what could happen if the province doesn’t get a win, a big win, soon.
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