Terry Newman: Canada should renew its Constitutional promise with pipelines

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Last week, Justin Trudeau held an impromptu Canada-U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto, the stated purpose of which was to build a resilient long-term prosperity agenda for Canada that is diversified in global trade and breaks down barriers between provinces and territories. While initially held in response to Trump’s looming threat of 25 per cent tariffs, which at that time had already been averted for 30 days, the popular sentiment among the crowd was that, regardless of tariff threats, these nation-building, inter-provincial economic talks were a good idea anyway, and long overdue. Simply put, it’s time to put decades of petty inter-provincial grievances aside to craft a new constitutional promise, not of a railway, but of pipelines that make Canadians more prosperous and unites East and West. But will the attempt be blocked by partisan interests?

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Judging by the tightly-controlled nature of this economic summit and Trudeau’s previous remarks about some of the potential unifying economic deals discussed there not having a “strong business case,” it makes me wonder why anyone would think the Liberal party would best represent the overall interests of Canada and Canadians in these talks.

The summit was held at the Young Centre in Toronto. There was no schedule of speakers. Media scrums were held without notice in corridors. Reporters were kept strictly separate from the business investors from who-knows-where who wore tags without any identifying information while they planned Canada’s economic future. The one exception to this was during short speeches from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Prime Minister Trudeau, which ended with media being quickly shooed out the room and Trudeau smarmily remarking something to the effect of, I’m sure the media would just love to stick around.

As we climbed the stairs to the media’s designated space, a European accent could be heard wafting out of speakers still connected to the summit room we were just rushed out of. Several reporters stopped and looked at each other, pausing on the stairs in an effort to make out who was speaking and what was being said, but were quickly shuffled along by Liberal organizers.

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In our permitted corridor, I requested a list of the investors in attendance from Simon Lafortune, Trudeau’s Press Secretary. At first, he tried to read select names off the list to myself and others. When pressed, Lafortune agreed to send the list by email, but I have yet to receive his response.

As for the talks we were allowed to witness, when asked by a reporter whether Canadians should have been having these conversations a month ago, Flavio Volpe, President of Automotive Parts Manufacturers’​ Association (APMA) responded, “Well, it should have happened 20 years ago. But the one thing that nobody in that room downstairs can build is a time machine. So we’re starting right now.”

Vople is correct. It’s unfortunate that it took tariff threats from an American president for us to start building the strongest possible economy for Canada and Canadians. This isn’t a new “moment” to strengthen our economy, as many speakers at the event suggested. It’s been several moments that have been passed over. Oil and gas pipelines have been opportunities for decades, but were hampered by the Liberals’ Impact Assessment Act and the promise of more regulations, such as emissions caps, which have scared off investors.

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Opposition to energy projects over the past decade have also been fuelled by the political interests of B.C. and Quebec, even though provinces have no constitutional authority to stop inter-provincial infrastructure projects.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which carries Alberta crude to the West coast, had to be rescued by Ottawa after investors were driven away by federal regulation, constant litigation and political opposition in B.C. TC Energy cancelled its Energy East pipeline in 2017 because of federal regulatory interference, litigation and political opposition from Quebec. The pipeline would have brought oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to New Brunswick and Quebec refineries.

All of this has been detrimental to Canadian unity. The reality is, Ontario and Quebec import significant amounts of energy from the U.S., which includes electricity, natural gas and crude oil, when they could be getting it from Canada. Both provinces import about half of their natural gas from the U.S., and as for crude oil, we still rely on the U.S. and foreign owned oil, even with the Enbridge Line 9 reversal. Canada is the largest source of U.S. combined energy imports. Why?

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Beyond pipelines, we need to recognize the potential of energy projects of various kinds, not for one province or another, but for Canada.

Symbolically, pipelines would connect us, make us economically prosperous and potentially heal long-politically-perpetuated East-West divides. If, and only if, the attempt is truly a non-partisan effort.

In an attempt to show just how non-partisan they were, the Liberals invited an Albertan to the summit. No. Not Premier Danielle Smith — former NDP premier Rachel Notley. She told the crowd: “There’s a real sense of a moment amongst everybody. There is a prioritization of Canada and our economic best interests and the best interests of Canadian citizens,” she said.

In the 19th century, the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, linking B.C. to the rest of Canada, symbolized the promise of Confederation, uniting East and West across the continent.

It is a notion that I personally identify with, as should all Canadians.

I’m from a railroad family. My great-grandfather was a brakeman. My grandfather, who raised me, was a conductor for CN and did the run from Sydney, Cape Breton to Havre Boucher, N.S. Sometimes, he took me along. He was even in a CBC commercial, waving from the back of the caboose where he worked for over 40 years before retiring. As a young girl, I saw how the loss of VIA rail passenger service to Cape Breton and other communities caused him despair, not because it was some local interest, but because it spoke to larger visions and ties breaking down across Canada.

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While national passenger service may no longer be economically feasible in every part of the country, we now have an opportunity to symbolically renew the promise of our Constitution and settle petty inter-provincial squabbles. New alliances between East and West have been forming over the past few decades. Many easterners go out West for work and call westerners friends. The old suspicions between East-West previously facilitated by our geographical separation, and often conjured up for political advantage, are no longer holding. Those suspicions are now pointed directly where they should be, not at each other, but at our federal and provincial governments.

As Justin Trudeau said at the summit, “It’s about time we had genuine free trade within Canada.” Free trade between the provinces was a key driver of Confederation. Today, that must mean free trade in energy.

The opportunity for an East-West pipeline and other energy infrastructure is something that, until now, the Liberals had been stridently against. Canadians need to seriously consider which party and leader they want to be our new nation builder and who they might gather to discuss Canada’s economic future. Will this new leader have a grand unifying vision, a new East-West promise, or will they deny our nationhood and pit us against each other?

tnewman@postmedia.com

X: @TLNewmaMTL 

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