The ramifications of the demise of Energy East

OTTAWA—I don't understand why people believe that western Canadian separation is dead. It appears, at least on the federal level, that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals believe they can ignore Alberta and now Saskatchewan. In the past, the only province that threatened separation was Quebec. However, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister the situation changed. In fact, he's still sometimes labelled as the "Father of Western Alienation" because of such policies as the National Energy Program. This program appeared designed to deprive the west of economic benefit in favour of transfer payments to other parts of the country such as Quebec. This caused the start of a western separation movement. Does anyone remember the Western Independence Party? It believed that the four western provinces and territories should separate and form a new country. Admittedly, it was a fringe party but it did run 11 federal candidates unsuccessfully in 1988. What it accomplished was publicizing and bringing western alienation to a national and public level. Almost at the same time, the Reform Party of Canada came into existence. With Preston Manning at the helm, it became the largest party in Western Canada in 1993. It merged into the Canadian Alliance in 2000, which then merged with the Progressive Conservative Party and became the Conservative Party in 2003. Based on this merger, the Liberals seem to have considered western separation a dead issue. Once again, they can isolate the West with impunity. TransCanada Corp recently announced it was cancelling its proposed $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline proposal. This project would have fuelled development in the economy and eliminated our need to rely on foreign sources. According to reports, the pipeline would have carried more than one million barrels of oil per day and added 1,500 kilometres of new pipelines. It was expected to create about 14,000 new jobs that, obviously, would have stimulated the economy. Trudeau claimed the decision was not due to politics, however, the record appears to contradict this assertion. New climate-change policies were created but the same standards were not imposed on Venezuela and Saudi Arabia-imported oil. The result was that TransCanada Corp and Canadian oil companies were forced to comply with standards that were not required for foreign companies. If Trudeau is a true environmentalist, why is Canadian oil not supported when it's cleaner than imported oil? The question that needs to be asked is what can Alberta and Saskatchewan do about it? Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has been quoted as saying, “Something needs to change. For the West to continue on like this in our federal system is the equivalent of having Stockholm syndrome." In Alberta, both Brian Jean and Jason Kenney, who are running for the leadership of the United Conservative Party, have called for an Alberta referendum on federal equalization programs. Brian Jean tweeted, “equalization is broken. Albertans should owe NOTHING to politicians in Quebec who cheer against our industries." Alberta or Saskatchewan implementing a notwithstanding provision for equalization would be an advantage for the provinces. The money not paid in equalization could be used for provincial revenues and to help ensure or create a balance provincial budget. Second, it would be an extremely popular move in the west to end federal welfare programs that appear to benefit Quebec. To date only one province, Quebec, has used this clause and that was to restrict English-language usage in the province. The federal government is committed to equalization payments in the Constitution through clause 36 (2) “Parliament and the government of Canada are committed to the principle of making equalization payments to ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation.” The notwithstanding clause would allow a province to override this clause. From a western viewpoint, this would create a "fairer" taxation system since the voters would no longer be expected to support the have-not provinces. A separation movement has started once again. There are many perceived advantages to both Saskatchewan and Alberta to becoming independent when they are treated as second-class citizens within Canada. I am certain that there are other federal programs that the notwithstanding program could apply to. The government may well have woken the proverbial sleeping tiger. Allan Cutler is past president of Canadians for Accountability, a group formed to help whistleblowers, fight corruption, and an advocate for truth and transparency. The Hill Times