“This is the moment when Premier Notley should be signalling a new direction for Alberta that recognizes a strong national energy strategy must be informed by strong climate goals”, said Louise Comeau, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.
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They say the agreement strikes a balance between supporting project development and the need to act on climate change.
“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.
Debbie Forward, president of the Registered Nurses Union of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the federal government is not paying its fair share for health care.
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Canadians want economic growth”,
said British Columbia Premier Christy Clark. “We only have one customer for this product so far”.
Gallant said he would be disappointed if a national energy strategy is not reached this week, but said projects such as Energy East can still go ahead without it.
In advance of Friday’s agreement, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall made it known he was unhappy with the strategy’s drafts, which he said compromised the economic benefits provided by Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s oil developments, in favour of environmental concerns.
While Wall changed his tone on Friday after his more aggressive stance earlier in the week, he still defended the oil and gas industries as the meetings wrapped up.
There was no acknowledgement, either, of all the innovation and spending that is already taking place to improve the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction, though plenty of insinuation that whatever is going on, it’s not good enough.
“If the energy strategy is simply about expanding market access, we aren’t going to be getting at those questions of climate change.
That speaks to the fact that, right now, even though Canada is home to the third greatest oil reserves on the planet, we import oil because we are not able to move it across the country, which just seems dumb”.
The document makes few specific mentions of pipelines and oil and gas.
The strategy was announced as Nexen Energy apologized for a five-million litre pipeline spill of bitumen, produced water and sand southeast of Fort McMurray, Alta.
“By working together, we can all reduce the price of prescription drugs across Canada”, the statement says.
Quebec and Ontario had wanted to see the strategy – first proposed by former Alberta Premier Alison Redford – balanced between expansion of the industry, such as pipelines, and environmental issues.
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“Our province, with Ontario and B.C., are particularly advanced on that”.
