Don Braid: It’s time for Alberta to take economic action against Liberal Ottawa, and make it sting

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Premier Danielle Smith launched a blazing attack on Ottawa Monday after the feds finally announced their emissions cap on oil and gas.

She was genuinely furious and it showed in a stream of red-hot rhetoric.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a “deranged vendetta against Alberta,” she said.

Whenever the province tries to negotiate, she added, “they hammer you on the head when your back is turned.”

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The premier came close to saying Alberta will invoke the constitutional notwithstanding clause to opt out of the cap.

Whether the clause works for such a purpose is questionable, but the declaration would still be a powerful message.

She’ll also head to court — again — and work up a resolution under the Sovereignty Act.

Smith said she has carefully studied former Premier Peter Lougheed’s victory over resource ownership in the 1980s.

That reference was intriguing. She probably wishes she had Lougheed’s government tools in hand — specifically, the ability to simply stop shipping oil to central Canada.

Lougheed did that. His PC government cut supply to Ontario refineries in stages.

It worked. Ontario wept like a baby and the feds caved before the third cut came into effect.

That’s much harder to do today because of regulation changes and diminished provincial control over private companies.

But we’re finally at the point where the premier should launch some specific economic retaliation.

The debate in the 1980s was over who got the money. Today, it’s about whether there will be any money.

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As long as federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is anywhere near government, it will be obvious that the ultimate goal is to shut in Canadian oil and gas.

If this goes forward, Canada will be the only oil and gas producing country with such a cap.

That hands the advantage to countries like Venezuela that care far less about emissions than the Alberta government and Alberta producers do.

But of course, imposing a cap convinces many people in the rest of the country that Alberta does nothing to control emissions.

That is simply false. The province has made great progress on methane. Companies know that their international reputations — and sales — depend on taking serious action.

Smith said that the Liberals have some nerve announcing the cap when their public support is in the tank, the NDP could defeat them any day, and even their carbon tax is under siege from other parties.

But this is an election ploy; go after Alberta, the useful climate villain, to please the progressive crowd in central Canada that has largely abandoned the Liberals.

Smith likens Trudeau to the “bad renter who wrecks the furniture” on the way out.

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He would leave the economic repair job to others.

We don’t hear the “just transition” phrase much any more. It became too toxic. But the cap is just another pressure that would lead to job loss and dislocation in Alberta.

Smith argues that emissions can be cut to meet targets, but by 2050, not 2026 or 2030.

The reason, she credibly argues, is that technology takes years to develop and implement. Carbon capture is only now getting under way and still awaits federal support.

As a (younger) journalist I covered all the major oil price and constitutional negotiations of the 1980s.

For this Ontario boy born and raised, arriving here via Quebec, the prevailing attitude toward Alberta was shocking.

To the Liberals of that day the province was a distant place of high economic value, but even more political utility as a target that can produce masses of Liberal votes if you hit the bullseye.

Then, as now, arguing Alberta’s case made you a traitor in the eyes of the national media and government.

That’s exactly what’s going on now. Smith should not just talk. She should act — and make it sting.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X: @DonBraid

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