That’s because the very nature of the Canadian Energy Strategy begs a much more important question: Are the provinces really the roadblock standing between Alberta’s energy products and global markets?
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Expect Premier Kathleen Wynne to return from a premiers’ meeting in Newfoundland this week having made an agreement that will let a new crude-oil pipeline be built across Ontario.
“We are pleased that the premiers heard this call from Canada’s nurses and pushed back on the damaging position taken by this Conservative government”, said CFNU President, Linda Silas.
“Ultimately, I think we got what we needed with the language that was there”, she said.
“Again, we had some discussions about the spill in Northern Alberta today and the premiers understand that, notwithstanding the unfortunate event we saw, that pipelines continue to be the safest way to transport non-renewable resources across this country”, Notley said.
Leaders of the country’s provinces and territories will discuss and potentially finalize the Canadian Energy Strategy at a three-day meeting this week, according to government officials familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.
Alberta, he said, was not looking for less regulation for pipelines.
You’d never know from reading the Canadian Energy Strategy approved by provincial premiers Friday that Canada’s oilsands are one of the world’s leading sources of oil – and of oil-supply growth in the future. The strategy notes that while Canada’s overall greenhouse gas emissions increased by 18 percent from 1990 to 2013, there has been an average annual decrease in Canadian emissions intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) since 1990.
“It is certainly time for the Premiers to join our insistence that Canada needs a federal government that will reinvest in our nation’s health care”, says Melissa Newitt, Interim National Coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition.
In the end, Wall got what he wanted, as the strategy explicitly calls for Canada to expand its oil exports and pipeline developments. Going into the meeting Wall aggressively defended the energy industry, something he continued to do at Friday’s press conference.
The strategy, which has been in the works since 2007, even satisfied Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
ENERGY -The premiers hope to finally complete their long-awaited “Canadian Energy Strategy” to somehow promote green energy innovations while also building controversial new pipelines to transport oil and gas to market.
The groups want a strategy that would halt oilsands development and the infrastructure that would support it, such as pipelines, oil train facilities and tankers.
“Oil and gas are not four letter words”, he said.
The strategy provides a framework for the premiers to work on strengthening the energy industry, and address the need to act on climate change. Instead, he’s hopeful that the premiers will emerge from St. John’s with an umbrella of common aspirations and objectives – ones that allow the resource sectors of every province to proceed accordingly.
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“We need to see real reductions in carbon pollution across the country”.
