While the majority of wealth being lavished on Quebec ultimately comes from energy producing provinces, those provinces continually hear ... “Non, aucune chance” ... when they try and get their products to market

Just two days ago I believe, I was listening to the Evan Solomon nationwide radio program on Kamloops radio station CHNL.  My ears perked up when I heard he would be doing a 30-minute live interview with Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and so instead of getting underway with a task on my ‘to-do-list’, I stayed tuned.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

I listened with what should have been disbelief, but in reality, wasn’t, as he failed to answer one question after the other.

I fact, during the call-in portion of the program, which followed the interview, one listener stated that not only was he not impressed, he was in fact ‘underwhelmed’.  When Solomon then asked him was ‘nothing in the interview’ that was positive, he commented that the only thing Trudeau answered, was that ‘consulting’ with First Nations government DID NOT imply that their consent was needed for projects to go ahead.

Interestingly enough, Solomon agreed that this was the only question that Trudeau did in fact answer.  He then went on to state that with only a half hour for the interview, he could only attempt to get an answer by posing the same question two or three times; then he had to give up and go on to the next one.

So, here is what I find interesting from this whole exercise ... First Nations governments would therefore NOT be able to block energy projects ... however they actually do seem to be able to do so.  Trans-Canada had hundreds of meeting with First Nations peoples, nearly all but two First Nations government I believe signed on with their approval.

Consulting done ... YES ... however, not to the satisfaction of an unelected judicial system which continually seems intent on re-writing the laws of the land to suit them -- and not actually implementing the democratically decided will of our national government. The Trans Mountain project stalled... despite Trudeau’s allegations that consulting DOES NOT mean veto!

Then, we have the asinine Quebec government to contend with; spoiled childish brats is the only way they can and should be described when it comes to their demands and their pronouncements of how things will be done.

Over and over, the demands from Quebec for more independence – or sovereignty – have lined up with increased in transfer payments to them.  This has happened whether Conservative governments were in power, or Liberal.  Regardless of the fact that the majority of that wealth being lavished on Quebec comes from energy producing provinces, they seem unable to comprehend that the gravy train has to end at sometime.   

Those provinces, needing to get oil and gas to market, cannot continually hear ... “Non, aucune chance” ... over and over again.

And as far as whether consent is needed from Quebec (which I believe not to be the case), the twitter post which I saw a couple days back seem pretty accurate as to the pandering Justin seems intent on continuing:

There is no support for a pipeline through Quebec.” - @JustinTrudeau on a possible revitalization of the Energy East pipeline.

Maxime Bernier, leader of
the Peoples Party of Canada

And what does Maxime Bernier of the People Party have to say about that?

“We’re in 2018, we can build a pipeline that will respect the environment, and will be safe for both the environment and the local population.  People in Quebec know with the Lac-Megantic tragedy, that transporting oil in a train isn’t safe”.

When asked what he would do as Prime Minister, if Quebec did not approve the Energy East project, he was undeniably clear:

“Firstly, we must make sure this project is accepted by the private sector, the private sector set it aside.  But let’s say they do accept. In that case we must go forward with the project, the Federal Government has all the legislative tools needed to approve the project”.

Asked to clarify that, and if he would impose it on Quebec, he continued:

“Yes, we can impose it through the general advantage clause of the Constitution.  We’d need to go through the appropriate consultations, but at the end of the day, the pipelines need to be built in Canada“.

Recently, Canada’s Energy Citizens seem intent on forcing the issue, along with New Brunswick Premier Blain Higgs.  Here are the contents of an email which they sent to supporters just this morning (December 18^th):

Over the past couple weeks, talk of Energy East has been back in the news.  That’s a good thing!

And we have New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs to thank for pushing it forward on the national agenda from his calls to revive the Energy East pipeline.

Can you help keep up the momentum by sending him a note telling him thanks?

Energy East was pulled because of excessive regulatory and political hurdles. It’s important when political leaders lend their voice to support our energy sector - among the best in the entire world - we show them we appreciate their efforts.

The fact is, Canada sits on the third largest reserves of oil in the world, but we imported $17 billion of foreign oil last year mainly to Eastern Canada.

Send a letter to Premier Higgs today and ask him to keep up the effort to move Canadian oil from the West to the East!

Thanks for your support!
Canada's Energy Citizens

Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau handed out $1.6 billion to Alberta’s oil and gas sector.  Oh, and by the way, this year’s debt of $19 billion now has a new total with that hand-out.  The NEW TOTAL?  $20.6 billion (approximately)

The question that should be asked by Canadians however is, did Alberta’s oil and gas sector, including the 100,000 employees that have lost their jobs in the past several years due to not having access to world markets, want that $1.6 billion?

I believe the answer is NO.  Instead they want to have that access to world markets via an expanded Trans Mountain pipeline to the West coast, ... and to Canadian markets on the East Coast and beyond.

That means ... approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to go ahead through British Columbia.  There can be no more waffling on the subject, and a clear understanding to John Horgan and his NDP government that thier ultimatum of throwing every roadblock they can find in its way, will not be tolerated – NO MORE DELAYS!  “Attendus sans delai”. 

It also means Justin Trudeau must give a clear sign to the Quebec government he will NOT ALLOW them to hold Alberta and Saskatchewan, or the country as a whole, hostage ... all the while insisting federal governments continue paying ransom (in the way of transfer payments from energy producing provinces) to the whining squeaky wheels of Quebec.

Enough is enough ... trop c’est trop!

That seems to be the opinion of Bernier as well as he recently stated:

“My point is on the final outcome of the project. We must have pipelines that go both west and east to guarantee future economic development in our country”. 

It seems that one elected politician at least is listening to Canadians.  What Canadians do as a result of that, we will have to wait and see next fall when ballot boxes are opened, and votes are counted.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops.  If you have any thoughts on this commentary, please share them below in the Comments Section.