The right wing of the blogosphere has been positively bursting with indignation since Liberal MP Mark Holland appeared on a talk radio show and said something about Alberta’s oil sands. Bloggers are indignant because a) The Liberals are Proposing To Nationalize the Oil Sands and b) the Mainstream Media are aiding their Liberal friends by ignoring this story! Indeed, many readers of this blog have sent me personal e-mails asking me Just What’s Going On?
Well, I’m afraid I’m unqualifed to answer b) above (and, besides, would you believe me if I did?) but several reporters did gather around Holland, who is his party’s Natural Resources Critic, outside the House of Commons yesterday to ask him about his plan to Nationalize the Oil Sands. Here are the questions — put to him by several reporters — and here are his responses:
REPORTER: Your comments made a lot of people out west nervous. Are you willing to say now that you did or did not mean nationalizing the oil industry?
HOLLAND: I absolutely didn't mean that, and that's a complete twist and perversion of what I said. What I said was that everybody has to be part of the solution here. And I'm talking about industry in Ontario, I'm talking about industry in Quebec, I'm talking about industry in Alberta, that we all need to be part of the solution and work collaboratively. And any attempts to mischaracterize that is crass and political.
Holland was asked about this ‘crass and political’ mischaracterization:
HOLLAND: There's been an enormous amount of manipulation of this, including from the Premier of Alberta, and it's verym very political. I mean, what they're trying to do is to get it so that no one can even talk about limiting the oil sands expansion. But look, if we're serious about climate change, then we're going to have to talk about the oil sands, and we're going to have to talk about all large final emitters. And the reality is unfettered growth in the oil sands, unfettered growth of any large industry, is unacceptable. And let's also take a look at what Albertans are saying. They don't have the infrastructure. They have labour shortages. They're concerned about water quality. They're concerned about environmental degradation. And if there's a five-time increase in the oil sands expansion, just imagine where those issues are. So Albertans themselves are concerned about this, and we all have a responsibility to manage and utilize our resources responsibly.
REPORTER: You want to limit the growth in the oil sands?
HOLLAND: No, what I think we need to do is to take, as we've said with all large final emitters, that we need to have caps. And the Prime Minister himself has talked about this, and there hasn't been an outrageous reaction to that. That there has to be caps in terms of the degree of emissions that can be pumped into the atmosphere. And that multiplying the oil sands [production] 4.6 times, [as] the Finance Minister said in China, or as Gary Lunn has said, the Minister of Natural Resources, four to five times expansion, by 2015, would blast apart all of our greenhouse gas emissions. And that all large final emitters have a responsibility to ensure that the emissions that they are putting out there do not destroy our ability to reduce emissions.
REPORTER: Do you want to cap growth in the oil sands?
HOLLAND: No, what we're doing right now is we have the Natural Resources Committee making a series of recommendations on how to deal with the oil sands specifically, and we have C-30 [the Clean Air Act] to deal with the issue more broadly of how to regulate emissions for large final emitters. What I would like to see is for large final emitters, and for the oil sands, recommendations to be brought forward concurrently. But certainly me taking a formal position in advance of that committee having the opportunity to put forward its proposals would be premature. What I am saying is that five times expansion of the oil sands is inappropriate and would blast apart all of our emissions targets…. And what we have to ask is that it's incredibly disingenuous of the Prime Minister, on the one hand, to say that he cares about climate change, and on the other hand to talk about expanding the oil sands by five times when we know if he does that it makes it absolutely impossible, even by 2020, to have any reductions of any kind.
Holland represents an Ontario riding, Ajax-Pickering, right next door to General Motors giant manufacturing plant in Oshawa. He was asked if the auto industry, too, ought to be capped.
HOLLAND: Absolutely. I would say the same thing of the five times expansion of just about any industry, unless they were going to be willing to put technologies in place to control their emissions. Look, every industry in Canada, I don't care where it is or what it's doing, has a responsibility to ensure that their growth is appropriate, it's managed, and that we don't have emissions pouring out from those industries that are going to blast apart our ability to meet our international commitments.
REPORTER: Do you think that growth in the oil sands is inappropriate?
HOLLAND: I think that growth in the oil sands that would result in greenhouse gas emissions that would negate our ability to meet our international commitments is not acceptable.
REPORTER: How popular do you think this position will make you in Alberta?
HOLLAND: I think the position will be very popular because I think that Albertans want to make sure that their resource is managed appropriately. I'm hearing from a lot of Albertans who are very concerned about water quality, who are concerned about lack of infrastructure, who are concerned about environmental degradation, and concerned about the rate at which that resource is utilized, wanting to make sure that it's there for a long time. So there's a lot of Albertans who share these concerns, and I think that they're asking the question of why. Why would anybody talk about multiplying this by five times, or 4.6 times? And they recognize as well that all industries, whether or not it's in Ontario in the auto sector, or whether or not it's in Alberta in the oil sands, that every industry has a responsibility to ensure that their greenhouse gas emissions do not obliterate our international commitments on climate change.
Mr. Holland is now spinning himself into the ground. He said their would be “consequences” if the oilsand industry in Alberta did not fall into line. Holland is a pretentious young man and he needs to better learn to control his mouth. On the other hand maybe it is good that he has revealed Stephane Dion's hidden agenda for the country should he ever become prime minister. It is now Wed. and Holland's comments were made last Thursday. However, the media either did not do their jobs or they were downplaying what would have been considered a serious faux pas if a Conservative had made such comments.
There is an old saying ” it takes one to know one ” DISINGENUOUS Mr Holland?
Hollands pathetic attempts to get out of this one might sound ok to the sheeple east of Manitoba, but they aren't fooling anyone out here. In any case, he clearly revealed the liberal agenda and it's tried and true tactic of making Alberta the whipping-boy to give the easterners that warm & fuzzy feeling. Public sentiment towards liberals out here is seething just under the radar, and Stephen Harper winning a year ago the only reason Ted Morton is not the premier now.
I have no doubt that the liberals view Alberta as yet another source to fill the trough they are used to feeding at, and are actively trying to find a way to elbow their way in, but they had better watch their step or they'll have a groundswell of separation minded folks that will make the movement in La Belle province look like a picnic in the park.
Dion has clearly shown himself to be as out of touch as any other eastern liberal, his knowledge of the oil industry ends at the gas nozzle that fills his car. If central Canada elects this bumbling fool then Canada as we know it has begun its final descent, which is something I think is eventually going to happen anyway, this country just CANNOT continue the way it is, it doesn't work, plain and simple. Serious changes are going to have to be made, and the power brokers in the east will not let this happen.
Skal!
Sooo…the primary regulator of Oil Sands Expansion is the highly skilled and experienced Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and most environmental regulation is administered by Alberta Environment pursuant to the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. Does Mr. Holland expect the Prime Minister to instruct Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada to take a hard line and repudiate past joint review panel participation? That's unrealistic and likely ultimately ineffective.
In other words, Mr. Holland's comments haven't been misinterpreted. The only way for Harper to do what Mr. Holland demands is to change the jurisdictional powers of the federal government at the expense of the government of Alberta.
Obviously Mark has been well schooled in Liberal double-talk. I'm sure even the retired Mr. Chretien paused in fondling his signature balls to take note of this accomplished graduate. We will look forward to more comments and interpretations from this young man.
It is Liberal tactics employed once again: say one thing
when it suits the purpose of the party, and say something different at a later time – because it serves the purpose of the party.
Has anyone come up with a better recipe for creating skepticism?
Hey curmudgeon…at least Chretien has balls to fondle. The Harper double talk and sudden love affair for the environment are all things directed agains this opponent and have nothing to do with commitment. Give Harper a majority and the environment will the way of ther do do bird.
yes voters in the one party state of Alberta
Fine, then if it is a clash of perspectives, if not cultures you want – bring it on.
We have had a significant increase of population here in Alberta in the last 20 years. Most of these people have come from east of Alberta. I can't believe that all of them were conservative minded (or Conservatives). Yet Conservative politicians keep getting elected provincially and federally by large majorities. When people get here they look back to where they came from and hear just how the pompous comments coming from “back home” sound they vote appropriately. Sooo, when and if there is another move made on our province's coffers, and if the Conservative provincial party doesn't protect us, you will see that there will be another party voted in and it won't be liberals or ndp types.
One question: is there room on the federal scene for a party to defend Alberta? I am dismayed with the CPC.
For it is hypocritical for us to have troops in Afghanistan, when in Quebec you can say anything you want – as long as it is in French.
Plus, does Ottawa think that raiding income trusts validates that they get better value for money than ordinary folk and businesses?
Plus, why only silence on the monopolies enjoyed by Telus, Canada Post, and the CWB.
Alberta-first….I'll probably lose any credullity that I have on this blog but what I was getting at was that it wouldn't break my heart to see Western Canada as a separate country or even Alberta pulling out and going it alone. I am sick and tired of Ontaio left wing types pushing their socialist agenda on Western Canada. Gun control, 15 year faint hope, slap on the wrist for juveniles, molly coddle the criminals,,,,suspect the victim, anti Americanism and I can't believe the outrage that some Canadians have now that we need a passport to get into the US. In my opinion we may as well have a welcome mat out for the terrorists of the world. Every little bit of rock and dirt that calls itself a country in the Caribbean needs a passport, why not the US. I am tired of worrying about what the libs have in store for Alberta the next time they get a majority, witness Mark and gang. So it's not a national party that I'm thinking about, but a strong provincial party that will at the very least, keep our best interests at heart.