Wall: Provinces need to get out of the way of pipelines

[Oscar]

Brad Wall is right: provinces need to get out of the way of pipeline approvals

[ http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... -approvals ]

Don Braid, Postmedia News | July 16, 2015 12:39 PM ET

Landing one of his trademark zingers, Wall said: “Maybe we need to have equalization payments start flowing through a pipeline in order to finally get one approved through Central Canada.”

“I do not think any province in Canada should be holding up approvals of a pipeline …

“I don’t think they should be able to hold it up by saying, ‘We don’t think your environmental policies are stringent enough,’ or ‘Maybe we don’t like the way you price carbon,’ whatever it may happen to be. I think that’s of great concern.”

“The people of Alberta and the people of Saskatchewan should not have to face these sorts of conditions.

“I think there’s a growing sense of frustration here because our economies in the West have been contributing significant opportunities for all Canadians.

“I don’t think this kind of talk is welcome, frankly, and I’ll be raising it when we’re down there (at the Council of the Federation meeting in St. John’s), maybe in a private way with various premiers, maybe at the table.”

Then he left for the meeting in Newfoundland, where all the premiers will gather to discuss many issues, including the Canadian Energy Strategy.

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On the local level, Wall’s outrage will delight Alberta’s energy industry. And Saskatchewan’s pitch, now that Notley is about to review royalty rates, is: “Come on over — Brad’s on your side.”

Wall will also face the Saskatchewan NDP in the upcoming election. After Notley’s May 5 triumph here, there must be a certain angst.

So he’s taking a clear stand of the kind Alberta’s PC government seemed incapable of articulating. That’s one reason they’re out, and he’s the most popular premier in Canada.

As for Notley, we can only hope there’s some steel in that velvet glove. She’ll need it someday soon.

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Related

Which team is Alberta premier Rachel Notley really on?
[ http://www.insidebaystreet.com/which-te ... really-on/ ]

Premiers’ national energy strategy will lack firm pipeline, emissions commitments, sources say
[ http://business.financialpost.com/news/ ... ources-say ]

[Oscar]

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

Premiers' Canadian Energy Strategy leaves door open for tar sands expansion and pipelines - July 17, 2015
[ http://canadians.org/media/premiers-can ... -pipelines ]
OTTAWA – The Council of Canadians is available to comment on the Canadian Energy Strategy signed by premiers at the Council of the Federation meeting that threatens to fast-track oil pipelines without making firm commitments for absolute reductions in climate pollution.


Environmental groups ask premiers to go back to the drawing board and make climate protection the priority in national energy agreement - July 16, 2015
[ http://canadians.org/media/environmenta ... n-priority ]
Environmental groups from across Canada today asked Canada’s premiers meeting in Newfoundland to delay adopting a new national energy strategy that will undermine any hope of making deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.


Canadian premiers must embrace the future, not trade it away to big energy - July 13, 2015
[ http://canadians.org/media/canadian-pre ... big-energy ]
OTTAWA – The Council of Canadians is available to comment on the Canadian Energy Strategy the premiers are set to release – one that would fast-track oil pipelines without making firm commitments to reducing climate pollution.



Premiers must take stand on fracking, expanding oil sands - July 13, 2015
[ http://canadians.org/blog/premiers-must ... -oil-sands ]
The havoc currently being wreaked by rampaging wildfires out west, fueled in part by climate change, reminds us that reducing climate pollution is more urgent than ever. This should be at the forefront this week as provincial energy ministers meet in Halifax, and premiers and territorial leaders gather in St. John’s.

[Oscar]

Saskatchewan Premier Wall aims to woo Quebec on Energy East as opposition grows

[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e30467157/ ]

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QUOTE: "“It’s important for us to keep going to different areas of the country and to our respective provinces to talk about how we think this will have a positive impact on job creation and the economy,” Gallant said. “It’s great to have national leaders like Brad Wall talk about this in Toronto and in Saint John.”"

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June 15, 2016

A day after pitching the Energy East pipeline to an enthusiastic New Brunswick crowd, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall faces a more skeptical audience Thursday: Quebec.

Wall, continuing a swing through Eastern Canada, told an energy conference in Saint John Wednesday the $15.7-billion project proposed by TransCanada will benefit all of Canada, will be safe, and won’t make climate change worse.

The project would transport more than a million barrels of western Canadian oil a day to refineries in Eastern Canada and a marine terminal in Saint John.

“If we’ve made a mistake, perhaps it’s that we haven’t been as engaged as we could have been, with our neighbours and our friends, with telling the real story,” he said during a speech that closed to a standing ovation.

Many of the people in the audience were from the Saint John business community and Irving Oil, who would benefit from the pipeline and a proposed export terminal.

But Wall heads to Montreal Thursday for a meeting with Philippe Couillard, the premier of Quebec, where Energy East has run into stiff opposition. Politicians, environmentalists and other critics there question whether the ecological risks outweigh the economic rewards, concerns that Wall said he understands.

“While a big part of the project is conversion, the new construction does go through Quebec. So it is reasonable that Quebecers would have serious questions about that. It’s a lot of construction in some potentially pretty sensitive areas,” he said.

“Let’s make sure we do it in a safe way, but let’s make sure we answer all of the questions that Quebecers have and satisfy the concerns that they have,” Wall said.

On Wednesday, though, the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador formally declared its opposition to Energy East.

A resolution adopted in Quebec City requests that Ghislain Picard, the AFN chief for the region, lead opposition to the pipeline, both inside and outside the province of Quebec.

And it says the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People – officially adopted last month by the Trudeau government – bolsters aboriginal rights over lands and resources affected by the pipeline project.

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The Council of Canadians issued a statement calling Wall’s tour of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick “a desperate attempt to save a failing project.”

“Wall is acting as an industry lobbyist for a pipeline that’s a huge economic liability for Saskatchewan and all of Canada, not to mention an environmental and public health disaster,” said the council’s Daniel Cayley-Daoust.

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Gallant said he and Wall agree that a pipeline would stimulate economic growth and there is a need to continue to promote the project.

“It’s important for us to keep going to different areas of the country and to our respective provinces to talk about how we think this will have a positive impact on job creation and the economy,” Gallant said. “It’s great to have national leaders like Brad Wall talk about this in Toronto and in Saint John.”

[Oscar]

Council of Canadians available for comment on Premier Wall's Energy East spin tour

[ http://canadians.org/media/council-cana ... -spin-tour ]

Media Availability June 14, 2016

Energy East: Our Risk. Their Reward.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall’s tour of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick this week is a desperate attempt to save a failing project, says the Council of Canadians.

“Premier Wall is trying to spin Energy East as a boon for jobs and the economy, but the business case for the pipeline is falling apart,” says Daniel Cayley-Daoust, Energy and Climate Campaigner with the Council of Canadians, who is available for comment. “Wall is acting as an industry lobbyist for a pipeline that’s a huge economic liability for Saskatchewan and all of Canada, not to mention an environmental and public health disaster.”

The Council of Canadians advocates for a new plan that creates good, green jobs by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other programs that will actively fight climate change. -30-

Media contact

For media calls:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer
Cell: (613) 795-8685
Office: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249
E-mail: dpenner@canadians.org

[Oscar]

Premier Wall should put Sask. people ahead of oil industry

[ http://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/colum ... nd-col-a13 ]

by Mark Bigland-Pritchard Published on: June 24, 2016 | Last Updated: June 24, 2016 5:38 AM CST

In Brad Wall’s recent public statements on energy policy and in his Twitter exchange with Naomi Klein and Stanford engineering professor Mark Jacobson, the premier appears totally blind to the job creation potential of a transition to clean energy.

Numerous studies and worldwide experience find that renewables and energy efficiency create substantially more jobs per unit of investment than fossil fuels. A recent report showed that renewable energy alone employs 8.1 million people worldwide. Renewables employ more people than oil and gas in China, and more than all fossil fuels and nuclear combined in the United States.

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Meanwhile, the premier has not responded to a letter sent to him on May 24 and now signed by nine organizations and 250 Saskatchewan residents. In it we asked him a series of questions, such as:

Do you accept the scientific consensus that the Earth is warming, that consequently the climate is changing in diverse and potentially devastating ways, and that this results primarily from human activity in the form of greenhouse gas emissions?

Do you acknowledge that our dependence on fossil fuels is responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions? Do you agree or disagree with the well-established findings of climate science that global warming results in more frequent and more extreme weather events, including droughts, floods, heat waves, forest fires, etc., as well as sea level rise?

Do you accept the detailed research on these climate change impacts which resulted in the key commitment of the Paris Accord to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”?

Do you accept that Saskatchewan, like all jurisdictions worldwide, has a responsibility to take action commensurate with that ambitious but necessary goal? Do you accept the finding of climate scientists that, in order to remain below either of these temperature limits, total future emissions must be limited to a strict global “carbon budget,” and that the best scientific estimates for the size of this budget mean rapid reductions starting now, and an end to the fossil fuel economy worldwide around mid-century?

Are you aware that, if the budget for the (higher) 2°C limit were shared out equally worldwide, Saskatchewan would blow through its share in about four years at its current rate of emissions? Are you aware that Saskatchewan has the best solar resource and the best inland wind resource in Canada, and is one of the few places in the world where significant quantities of biomass energy could be produced in a sustainable way?

Are you aware of the enormous potential for job creation in clean renewable energy industries? Do you recognize the right of Indigenous people to say no to development proposals which threaten their land and water?

As a public servant, the premier accountable to the public. Saskatchewan people deserve to know where he stands on the major crisis facing our civilization.

While the climate justice movement seeks to engage him in an adult discussion, it appears he has chosen instead to fling unfounded accusations, misconstrue the work of serious scientists and send puerile tweets about “pixie dust and unicorns.” This leaves a disturbing message about the quality of political discourse at the highest levels in our province.

When is Wall going to be a true leader and face physical reality? When will he start serving the people instead of corporations? They may fund his party, but we pay his salary.

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Mark Bigland-Pritchard is an applied physicist and an organizer with Climate Justice Saskatoon.