6 days Ago By Lorne Gunter
Article content Remember last week when Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised a Calgary audience that his Liberal government would make Canada “the world’s leading energy superpower?” First of all, I don’t know how many times we Albertans are going to have to hear some Liberal politician come to our province and promise to advance our energy industry before we immediately break into gales of laughter. No Liberal means it. They all either want to take over our oil and gas industry or shut it down.
None of them are up to any good when it comes to Alberta or energy. And if you want instant proof Carney was following this same pattern with his “superpower” pledge, consider what he said in an interview that aired Sunday on the Radio-Canada program Tout le monde en parle (the Whole World is Talking), a sort of French-language 60 Minutes. When asked about energy projects and pipelines Carney said (in French), “We have to choose a few projects, a few big projects, not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines.
We’ll see.” That’s where his real heart lies on pipelines. “We’ll see.
” He didn’t say, “we’re going to build pipelines east and west to get our oil and gas to new markets so we don’t have to be as reliant on the Americans.” Nope. His commitment on pipelines was, “We’ll see,” which, of course, is no commitment at all.
You’ll recall that when he was running to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, Carney told an audience in Kelowna, in English, he would use federal emergency powers to push major energy projects through, then just days later told Quebec reporters, in French, he would not impose any such projects on that province if it didn’t want them. Since becoming prime minister, Carney has also promised a transportation corridor from one coast to the other, but has added that he would not repeal the No More Pipelines Act (officially the Impact Assessment Act) that requires First Nations’ approval, Quebec’s approval and gender balance in any megaproject workforce. Carney also made Trudeau’s radical former environment minister Steven Guilbeault his senior minister from Quebec.
And guess who’ll get to decide whether or not Quebec approves of any future pipeline. In other words, Carney has made big promises about turbocharging our energy sector, while at the same time clinging to Trudeau-era “green” policies and Quebec favouritism. In 2021, Carney founded the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the main purpose of which was to pressure banks, insurance companies and investment houses not to invest in fossil fuels.
Doesn’t sound like someone who wants to make Canada an energy superpower, at least not in oil and gas. My guess is that Carney is every bit as hostile to our oil and gas as Trudeau ever was, and what he means by Canada becoming an “energy superpower,” is a superpower in wind, solar and other “green” alternatives. If his Liberals are re-elected on April 28, they will shortly afterwards declare that Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy is going so well we don’t need more oil and gas.
Therefore, we just don’t need to build any more pipelines. Carney will insist there is no business case for pipelines the same way Trudeau claimed there was no business case for selling LNG to Germany, Japan and elsewhere. On the day Carney made his superpower pledge in Calgary (insert gales of laughter here), his Liberals released their energy platform which called for kickstarting “the clean energy supply chain,” getting “clean energy projects built quickly across Canada,” and building “an East-West electricity grid.
” But no mention of pipelines. Believe if you want that Mark Carney is a different kind of Liberal — one who intends to jettison the foolish, woke, “green” obsessions of the last 10 years. But I won’t.
[email protected] Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.
com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters . You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites.
The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.
