AB Today – Daily Report May 2, 2019

Quotation of the day

“It’s like a gunslinger swaggering down the street waving his gun after intentionally taking the bullets out of it.”

Official Opposition Leader Rachel Notley slams Premier Jason Kenney for proclaiming Bill 12 without enacting it.

Today in AB

On the schedule It’s official — the first session of Alberta’s 30th Parliament will begin on Tuesday, May 21. MLAs will elect their new Speaker in the morning and begin the session at 1:30 p.m.

Kenney heads to Ottawa today to appear as a witness at the Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources’ hearing on federal Bill C-69, the so-called “no more pipelines” bill. Kenney and Energy Minister Sonya Savage are scheduled to address the committee at 8 a.m. EST.

Kenney will then travel to Toronto for a Friday meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Canadian Club luncheon address.

Bill 12 is now law of the land — but Kenney says he doesn’t plan to use it

Last year’s intense political battle between British Columbia and Alberta is back in full force — although Premier Jason Kenney maintains he is still playing nice.

Kenney told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning that even though he proclaimed the “turn off the taps” law Tuesday, he will not yet enact its powers to limit crude shipments to B.C.

Kenney said if Alberta is pushed further into a corner when it comes to building the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, he will enact the bill, but for now he plans to use a “diplomatic approach,” noting he had a cordial phone call with B.C. Premier John Horgan Tuesday night.

“When you're in a game of poker, you don't show the other folks around the table what your high card is,” Kenney said. “Using this legislation would be the final, not the first step in responding to a campaign of obstruction.”

Kenney said Horgan should “listen to reason” and work for British Columbians who are “ticked off at paying a buck-seventy a litre to fuel up their trucks and their cars.”

“I would ask Premier Horgan to respect the authority of British Columbians who want to see Trans Mountain built,” Kenney said. “I would ask him to respect the over 100 First Nations that support this project.”

B.C. lawyers filed a statement of claim in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the “turn off the taps” law. In court documents obtained by AB Today, B.C.’s lawyers argues the law is unconstitutional because it “authorizes discrimination in supplies of natural gas and crude oil exported to British Columbia,” among other things.

Attorney General David Eby says he hopes the challenge gets a hearing by May 7.

The premier’s goal is to get the Trans Mountain pipeline built without further legal challenges from his western neighbours. B.C.’s Court of Appeal is currently considering what could be the British Columbia government’s last legal lever to oppose the Trans Mountain expansion — a reference case on the autonomy provinces have over regulating shipped products, such as diluted bitumen, within their borders. Arguments were made before a panel of five judges last month.

Kenney said he consulted with advisers before proclaiming the law, but had not received legal advice. However, he reminded reporters that when Bill 12 was moving its way through the legislature during a heated moment of Alberta-B.C. relations, the House voted unanimously in favour of the bill.

Then-premier Rachel Notley opted not to proclaim the bill into law until an earlier legal challenge went through the courts.

For her part, Notley said hastily proclaiming the bill made it vulnerable to legal challenges.

Notley said the fight to get Alberta’s oil to tidewater isn’t currently a fight with B.C. — it’s one with Ottawa — and compared Kenney’s actions to an “angry man” sitting on his lawn and “shooting his water hose at people.”

“We are engaging in sabre rattling with somebody who is not actually the impediment to getting the pipeline built,” Notley said. “I would suggest we are in the realm of optics, not strategic accomplishments.”

Notley also took issue with Kenney’s assertion that B.C. is guilty of stalling the Trans Mountain expansion by withholding permits. “It was moving forward,” Notley said.

Premier Horgan told reporters Wednesday his government has issued 309 of the project’s required 1,082 permits.

Energy Minister Sonya Savage, who stayed quiet during most of the Kenney-led newser, said she is looking forward to helping the premier get Alberta’s resources to market.

Today’s events

May 2 at 8 a.m. EST – Ottawa Premier Jason Kenney and Energy Minister Sonya Savage will address the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources on Bill C-69, Impact Assessment Act.

Topics of conversation

● Premier Jason Kenney confirmed the UCP’s first budget won’t land until the fall. In the meantime, the premier said a new “blue ribbon panel” to analyze the state of the province’s finances will be announced “as early as next week.” ○ Until then the province will operate on “special warrants,” which finance government programs and services until a budget is passed.

● Trident Exploration, a Calgary-based natural gas company, has shuttered its operations and is leaving 4,400 wells behind for the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to deal with. Trident informed the AER of its plans to cease operations and on April 29 the regulator ordered the company to properly manage its thousands of energy licenses by addressing end-of-life obligations through decommissioning its sites.

○ Instead, on April 30 the company’s directors ceased operations, terminated employees and contractors, and then resigned. ○ The AER said it will pursue all options to ensure that Trident’s infrastructure is transferred to responsible operators, safely decommissioned, or, as a last resort, transferred to the Orphan Well Association.

● Alberta grizzly bears’ diet is at risk due to the effects of climate change. A new study published in Nature Climate Change projects Canada’s buffaloberry, a late summer berry that is one of the largest sources of nourishment for Alberta grizzlies ahead of hibernation, is expected to ripen almost three weeks earlier by 2080. The timing of the crop threatens reproductive behaviour in the bears, scientists say.

● Ottawa confirmed that as long as the NDP-imposed 100 megatonne emissions cap remains in place on the oilsands, in-situ projects (which make up 80 per cent of Alberta’s oil industry) will be exempt from Bill C-69’s impact assessments. ○ Kenney said during the campaign he would lift the oilsands emissions cap; on Wednesday he clarified that he opposes the cap but “signed off on a platform” that does not portent to eliminate it. ○ The emissions cap was written into the province’s Climate Leadership Plan, but will not take effect until the pursuant regulations are proclaimed, which has not yet happened. Notley warned this means Kenney could slash the cap without passing new legislation.

● Premier Jason Kenney thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for announcing a new canola loan program in response to the ongoing trade dispute with China. China is claiming Canada’s canola is contaminated with pests, although experts tie the import blockage to the diplomatic dispute that began when Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in the Vancouver airport in December. ○ Kenney said he plans to discuss the issue with Alberta’s newly appointed Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen, who is a canola farmer himself, once Kenney returns from his mission to Ottawa.

● Cypress—Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes told Medicine Hat News he is “disappointed” he wasn’t chosen for a cabinet position. Barnes claims he was offered a non-ministerial position but declined. ○ Barnes, who was first elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2012, most recently served as the UCP’s finance critic. He had also been the Wildrose’s critic for energy, health, education, and transportation and infrastructure.

AB Today is written by Catherine Griwkowsky, reporting from Alberta's legislative press gallery.

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