Meanwhile, New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant has said he’s optimistic an agreement on a national energy strategy will be reached at the gathering. She stopped in to see Couillard on her way east and the two emerged with an effusive declarations of friendship: Couillard said he was “convinced that we have found a new ally” and Notley boasted that “an environmentally responsible energy industry will be a centrepiece of future growth across the country”. The plan was changed at the insistence of some of the provinces to reflect their desire to fight climate change.
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JOHN’S, N.L. – The premier of British Columbia says Canada’s premiers have made “significant” progress towards a national energy strategy and a deal could be released today.
The strategy is expected to be released later Friday.
Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, the premier of Canada’s most populous province, said the agreement acknowledged “strong competing needs and differences of opinion”.
Notley said her role coming in at the tail-end of the three-year process of drafting the strategy was more about keeping last-minute changes out of the agreement rather than adding any substance.
“Here we were able to achieve… a very commendable exercise of balance”, he said.
While it was bad timing and unfortunate, it didn’t alter the views of her fellow premiers that pipelines are still the safest way to transport hydrocarbon products, Notley said.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall cut a solitary figure at times during this week’s meeting.
Although Wall struck a milder tone Friday, he reiterated his “frustration” with what he said is a general reticence by politicians and the public at large to acknowledge the benefits reaped from the oil and gas sectors. He repeated that “oil is not a four-letter word” and described the discussion around the table as “vigorous”.
And while the Canadian Energy Strategy nearly certainly won’t produce the fast-tracking of energy infrastructure projects that former Premier Redford wanted to see, it might help push past the resistance that’s been holding them up. “One of them is around energy independence”. “That just seems wrong to me”.
“We always need to be mindful of the environmental implications of the industry witnessed in northern Alberta even today, and be serious about improving the environmental outcomes around energy development – there’s no question about it”, Wall said.
He said he was hoping the document would reflect that – refusing to say exactly what was in it.
“Energy in Canada is not only oil and gas, it’s also renewables – particularly hydroelectricity, in our case”, he said Thursday.
He described the previous landscape as like playing a game of “whack-a-mole”.
“I think that numerous premiers have come together to have mature and productive discussions that will meet the interests of all Canadians, both in terms of promoting jobs and economic prosperity as well as respecting everybody’s concerns about environmental responsibility”. The deal will list principles, and won’t help companies build pipelines any faster or provide firm new climate targets, the officials said. Rather, it wanted to know what it needed to comply with to move forward as access to more markets is critical as Canada basically has one customer – the U.S.
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“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.
