Throne Speech a Triumph of Political Double Speak

It never ceases to amaze me how easily political leaders can talk from both sides of their mouth at the same time. It must be genetic or something.

During last week’s throne speech the Harper government made a point of telling the nation how important it was that Ottawa find innovative ways of securing Canada’s energy future, tackling climate change and building the economy.

That’s what the speech said but what it really meant was: “The Harper government will find innovative ways to secure our political future, pretend we are tackling climate change and build voter support.”

In that speech the government of Canada specifically said it would accomplish it’s publicly stated objectives by supporting nuclear energy projects and by developing the natural gas potential of the North, including the building a natural gas pipeline.

According to the Prime Minister, “Energy is vitally important to our country…The development of our rich energy resources is an important source of wealth and Canadian jobs…Our Government has committed to reducing Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.”

Sounds great doesn’t it?

Sure it does but anyone living on the East Coast of Canada (the REAL East Coast of Canada) can tell you Harper's motives are not what the Prime Minister says they are.

The people of the Atlantic Provinces have suspected for decades that somewhere in Ottawa there is a map that depicts the Country as Ottawa truly sees it, with the border ending at Quebec.

Atlantic Canadians have been unwavering in their disgust each time they have been forced to bend to the will of Ontario, Quebec and more recently, oil rich Alberta.

It’s gotten to a point where the average citizen in Newfoundland and Labrador simply shakes their head and walks away knowingly when a politician announces anything that’s supposedly good for “Canada”.

The most recent throne speech and government actions have done nothing to change this reality.
A few years ago Stephen Harper, upon catching a glimpse of the attitude adopted by long time Atlantic residents, referred to the region as having a “culture of defeat”.

Personally I don’t see it that way at all. What I see is a people that have come to understand that in Canada the cards are forever stacked against them.

When Ontario, Quebec or Alberta strives to accomplish their objectives in Canada they usually win.

When Atlantic Canada strives to accomplish its objectives in Canada, Ontario, Quebec and increasingly Alberta, usually win.

In fact, with successive minority governments constantly on election watch the task of pandering to the big three has become an art form.

No matter the political party or the issue of the day, Quebec is still Quebec, Ontario, even as a have not province, is still Ontario and Alberta has become the newest member of Canada’s political elite.

In reality the desire to protect the environment, provide secure energy and create jobs in the North are little more than fluff for public consumption.

The truth is that massive quantities of natural gas are needed to keep one of the most environmentally destructive projects on the planet, the Alberta tar sands, humming along smoothly. Without it they would grind to a stand still.

Score one for Alberta.

On the nuclear front, yes nuclear power is cleaner than coal or oil generation, but there are other options out there, including wind, solar and good old fashioned hydro.

An example of this is the power potential of the Lower Churchill River in Labrador.

For decades Newfoundland and Labrador has been fighting an uphill battle to develop the massive energy potential of the Lower Churchill River. The project is in the planning stages but not one word was mentioned in the speech from the throne about hydro power in general or the Labrador project in particular, a project that has the potential to create thousands of jobs while providing clean dependable and low cost energy.

If at this point you are asking yourself “why wouldn’t the government support this project?” then you might want to go back and read the first few paragraphs over again.

It’s Canadian politics 101.

Forget the fact that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick need and desperately want the clean power this project would supply (I say forget those two provinces because, once again they are in Atlantic Canada and well…I’ve already shown that they just don’t matter to Ottawa).

Putting Atlantic Canada’s concerns aside, politically important Ontario has also expressed an interest in Lower Churchill power so shouldn't that mean it will move forward?

No.

It doesn't matter because another politically important province, Quebec, doesn’t want the project to move forward unless they can profit from it.

Even though the Harper government has the ability to assist with the development of the Lower Churchill, through loan guarantees or other forms of federal assistance, they won’t do it.

The Harper government has also walked away from its plans for the “East/West power grid” we all heard so much about a couple of years ago. A project once touted as “a nation building exercise to rival the building of the continental railway”.

What was hailed as critical to Canada’s energy future such a short time ago has now been abandoned.

Why?

You see developing the East/West Energy Grid or supporting the Lower Churchill hydro project would:

A) Require a part of the grid to pass through Quebec which might upset some seperatists; and
B) Mean Newfoundland and Labrador could reach waiting markets with their clean energy without having to hand over most of the profits to, you guessed it, Quebec.

Score 1 for Quebec.

But hold on you might say “doesn’t that mean Ontario won’t get the clean power it needs”?

“Doesn’t it mean that by pandering to Quebec and denying Ontario this power Mr. Harper has hurt himself politically?”

Not so.

I don’t know anyone who has ever said Stephen Harper was politically stupid and I’m not about to be the first.

In a brilliant move intended to head off any political fallout (while perhaps trading it for the nuclear kind) the Harper government will appease the voters of Ontario by assisting that province in moving forward with building more nuclear capacity.

Yes, the public may have a lower opinion of nuclear, it may be more dangerous and it may even be more expensive for consumers than hydro, but in political circles it has two far more important things going for it.

Unlike the Lower Churchill development, which would create thousands of well paying jobs in the region of Canada with the highest unemployment rate, nuclear will create jobs in vote rich Ontario and it doesn’t tick off vote rich Quebec.

Score one each for Ontario and for Quebec on that one.

So, to recap, the Harper government plans to improve Canada’s energy supply, create jobs and protect the environment how?

By:

Constructing an environmentally risky and potentially insecure gas pipeline across Canada’s North;

Using somewhat clean natural gas to extract extremely dirty and highly polluting tar sands oil in Alberta;

Building nuclear reactors in Ontario (no word yet on where the waste will end up but somebody is probably scouting locations down East); and

They’ll do it all while ignoring Newfoundland and Labrador’s efforts to develop the largest untapped hydro electric reserve in North America. A clean energy project capable of lighting well over a million homes across Canada and creating thousands of well paid jobs in Canada’s highest unemployment region.

Score 0 for Atlantic Canada.

Newfoundland & Labrador - When is an Energy Plan not an Energy Plan?

Yesterday was not a good day for yours truly.

Like many others my day began with vivid recollections of the travesty that took place on September 11, 2001. The anniversary of 9/11 is enough to deeply sadden any caring person but for me that mood became even darker as the day wore on.

Before noon I lost my longtime companion and best (four legged) friend of over 16 years.

There’s nothing like taking a friend, especially one you’ve had since he was a 4 weeks old, for that last long trip to the local vet. If you’ve never had to do it I don’t recommend it to anyone.

Of course I’m in no way comparing my personal loss to the anniversary of 9/11, but with both events stirring my emotions on the same day I spent the afternoon looking forward to anything that might provide some much needed distraction, if even for a brief moment. Thanks to Premier Danny Williams I found what I was looking for. Unfortunately a brief moment of distraction was about all it provided.

Just before noon yesterday the government of Newfoundland and Labrador released what it billed as a new energy plan for the province. Something everyone had been looking forward to for a long time. On first reading I wasn’t quite sure how to react to it and after further review I realized why.

One question kept popping into my head: When is an energy plan not an energy plan?

The answer came quickly: When it raises questions instead of providing answers.

Don't get me wrong, I see a lot of vision and direction in yesterday's release and while that in itself is a good thing it’s also the problem. The document, while providing some level of detail around gas royalties, for the most part reads more like a strategic vision than an actual implementation plan.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with setting a visionary direction and in all fairness it can't be easy to include a lot of detail in a document intended to span several decades. I suspect however that most people in the province and in the energy sector itself were looking for something with a lot more meat after waiting so patiently.

Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in. Perhaps, under the circumstances, it would have taken a document on par with the Declaration of Independence to fully impress me. Be that as it may, I see this so called plan as little more than a guideline document that will, more likely than not, end up collecting dust after the “Williams Team” eventually moves on and a new government takes its place.

On a brighter note, I like the fact that oil industry representatives were quick to say they are willing to work within the guidelines presented, even though they are not overjoyed about the equity position government expects on future projects.

The way I look at it, it's always a good sign when those who covet what you've got aren’t walking away angry, but it's an even better sign when they aren't slapping each other on the back and high fiving it all the way to the bank.

On that front Williams seems to have struck a balance between provincial need and industry greed.

The weakest part of the plan for me is the province’s direction on clean energy, or hydro power. It’s here that Williams has left a lot of questions unanswered.

In the document the government speaks of connecting the isolated island power grid to Labrador via an undersea cable. The intention is to use some of the power from the proposed Lower Churchill development as a replacement for the oil fired generating plant at Holyrood. This is great news for the environment and with the cost of oil these days it should be welcome news for consumers in the long term.

Where the plan is seriously lacking is around the use of Lower Churchill power to attract industrial development in Labrador.

Though a few references to industrial development and making the people the prime beneficiaries of the resource are peppered throughout the document, nowhere does the plan clearly state that partnering with industrial players and encouraging them to locate inside the province will be aggressively pursued. Instead there are only cryptic references to economic growth. It's almost as if the idea of local industrial growth was added as an afterthought to appease the public.

After touching on the topic of industrial growth the plan moves quickly on to the exporting of power into the North American grid.

Once again, this part of the plan is light on detail and direction and it shouldn’t be.

The selling of Lower Churchill power outside the province brings up a very sore point for many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Exporting power is not a preferred option for many. It is viewed as providing a way to foster industrial growth in places like Quebec and Ontario while unemployment continues to soar inside the province and local people move away by the thousands to the very places that would be the recipients of that power.

The public distaste and underlying anger around selling power instead of using it to attract industry is often further aggravated when the prospect of moving that power through Quebec is discussed.

The hangover from a lopsided Upper Churchill contract is still being felt very strongly and in some ways has shaped the psyche of the entire province when it comes to the prospect of making another “bad deal”.

For as long as he’s been in office Premier Williams has all but ignored partnering with potential long term industrial partners and instead claimed that his team is actively considering exporting power through a maritime route rather than acquiescing to what many suspect will be exorbitant demands by Quebec Hydro.

While this new energy plan speaks of the afore mentioned undersea link to the island as providing a starting point for this alternate route it doesn't go beyond that. What isn’t mentioned is the very serious capacity issue outlined in a 2005 government report recently acquired by the CBC. That document identifies major concerns with the provincial power grid and its ability to handle any substantial increase in power distribution. The grid is essentially maxed out and as such poses a major problem for any plan to bypass Quebec with the Lower Churchill.

This glaring omission is very concerning to those following the direction of the Lower Churchill development. Though government is still publicly saying that the maritime route is a valid option, the fact that there is no mention of capacity issues and little acknowledgement of industrial power use in Labrador, seems to be a clear signal that government has already made its mind on how it will proceed. It looks like they plan to either hold their noses and use the Quebec corridor after all or, if the public outcry is becomes deafening, shelve the project entirely.