Predictably, I suppose, the Federal Court of Appeal has released its latest “jobs for the boys” decision. The court ruled that six of 12 proposed legal challenges to the Trans Mountain pipeline can proceed.
The boys whose jobs are being protected, of course, are lawyers. Oilfield workers, not so much.
While our courts have been indulging their penchant for endless hearings and delays, Alberta’s energy sector has been devastated. Foreign holdings fell by more than $30 billion over the past three years.
Among the larger departures, Kinder Morgan withdrew from its $3.3-billion Trans Mountain project after it became clear our legal system represents a serious obstacle to resource extraction.
ConocoPhillips fled investments totalling $13.2 billion. Shell & Marathon Oil sold holdings worth $10.7 billion, and Devon Energy, $2.8 billion.
The result is that foreign investments in Alberta’s oilsands have dropped from 33 per cent of production in 2014 to about 16 per cent this year — a decline of 50 per cent.
No doubt this is music to some ears. It certainly shouldn’t be. Energy exports account for a fifth of Canada’s entire export market. It was those sales that kept Canada afloat through the 2008 recession.
And now we see the human consequences. The Alberta government recently commissioned a study of its budget woes. The project was led by a former NDP finance minister from Saskatchewan, Janice MacKinnon, surely no right-wing nutbar.
What occasioned this study was a deluge of red ink swamping the province’s books. Alberta recorded a deficit of $6.7 billion last year, and without corrective measures, the shortfall is projected to reach $9.1 billion by 2020.
The province’s net financial assets have already plummeted from a positive position of $31.7 billion a decade ago, to a negative position of $27.5 billion today, a swing of $60 billion. And this has befallen what used to be the country’s wealthiest region.
Here are MacKinnon’s recommendations.
In health care, set up a system of private clinics, cut the salaries of nurses and doctors, consider closing some rural hospitals.
Stop funding universities and K-12 schools based on enrolments, and move to a performance-driven system.
Use the statutory powers of government to regulate salaries throughout every part of the public sector, and pass back-to-work legislation when dealing with the inevitable strikes.
Cut capital funding to municipalities and force them to take up the slack.
Now I’ve commented in the past on Alberta’s wasteful spending habits. Some of these reforms, if adopted, are long overdue.
But do anti-pipeline protesters understand what changes like these mean? Do our courts? More private medicine. Heavy-handed intrusion into the governance of education facilities.
And of a certainty, higher property taxes as municipalities scramble to make up lost funding.
Yet this is just the start. The appeal court’s ruling allowed legal challenges to proceed on the grounds that consultations with First Nations had been inadequate.
But there have been years of painstaking meetings with various stakeholders, Aboriginal groups among them, and we’re still not done? From here forward, this will be the gauntlet through which any new energy project will be dragged.
And not just energy projects. Rail lines, gold mines, port facilities, forestry operations and more are all now firmly in the crosshairs.
Which private corporation in its right mind would wish to do business in Canada when this is what awaits them?
I understand the sense of deference with which Aboriginal claims must be treated. But at some point, the needs of the many must also be respected.
A recent Angus Reid poll shows that protecting oil and gas development has risen from nowhere in the standings to one of the most urgent priorities for a majority of Canadians. This is the work of a justice system that has turned its back on the national interest.
