Ignatieff — in Alberta — talks down proposed oilsands pipeline
By Renata D’Aliesio, Canwest News Service
July 11, 2010
CALGARY — Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff chastised the Harper government Saturday for waiting too long to build a relationship with China — but he remained steadfast against the prospect of tankers shipping oilsands fuel to Asia from the northern B.C. coast.
Ignatieff, in Calgary for a Liberal Stampede breakfast fundraiser, renewed his call for a ban on oil tankers in northern British Columbia.
Speaking in the heart of Canada’s energy sector, the Grit leader suggested a proposed 1,170-kilometre pipeline — which would link Edmonton to the West Coast by 2016 and carry an average of 525,000 barrels of crude a day to massive Asian markets — shouldn’t go ahead until it can be guaranteed a catastrophic oil spill would not occur.
“Everybody understands it would be a good thing for us to diversify our energy exports; add China to the list so we’re not so dependent on the United States,” Ignatieff told reporters after a speech to several hundred party supporters at the Stampede grounds. “But I’m not willing to do that and sacrifice the Pacific north coast, and I don’t think Albertans, when they think about it, want to do that either.”
Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice rejected Ignatieff’s plea for an oil-tanker ban, saying he believes infrastructure to transport Alberta oil to Asia can be built in an environmentally sound manner.
“Canada is an energy superpower. We intend on being an environmentally responsible energy superpower,” said Prentice, also in Calgary. “We need to make sure we have available to us the full range of market opportunities, and that includes China.”
The $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project, advanced by Calgary-based Enbridge, is being reviewed by the National Energy Board. It’s one of two oilsands pipeline proposals facing heat over their potential environmental toll.
The Keystone XL line, which proposes to transport bitumen to Texas refineries from east central Alberta, has met staunch opposition from some American politicians who contend the United States shouldn’t increase its reliance on fuel from the carbon-intensive oilsands.
The U.S. State Department is reviewing the Keystone project, and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach last week sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing his support for the pipeline. The U.S. is Canada’s largest oil consumer, and Canada exports roughly 70 per cent of its oil production south of the border.
But Alberta also has an eye on pumping its energy products into growing Asian markets.
In May, Stelmach visited China for a trade mission along with the premiers of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Since last fall, China has invested billions of dollars in Alberta’s oilsands, inking three major partnerships with Canadian firms to develop the bitumen bounty.
For his part, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking at a Conservative party fundraiser Saturday, told several hundred Tory supporters that his government’s goal is “to expand our trade.”
Harper didn’t directly address the pipeline issues, but stressed the oilsands are an important resource to Canada and the planet.
“Increasingly, the world recognizes that Canada is the safest and most stable source of energy, anchored by the oilsands right here in Alberta,” Harper told Conservative faithful.
In a rally-the-troops speech, Harper trumpeted the need for Senate reform and vowed to appoint candidates to the upper chamber if they’re democratically elected in the provinces. He also warned about the potential for another federal election, insisting the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois will stop at nothing to form a coalition government.
“Our government is not seeking an election. We are focused on Canadians’ No. 1 priority, and that is the economy,” he said.
The prime minister also argued his government “is opening markets” — including with China. Harper noted the Chinese border is now open to Canadian beef after being completely shut for several years.
Wenran Jiang, who specializes in Canada-China relations at the University of Alberta, said there’s no doubt China has a strong appetite for Alberta’s oil.
Jiang believes Ignatieff’s opposition to tankers tied to the Northern Gateway pipeline is misplaced, noting oil tankers already move in and out of Vancouver’s busy port. The NDP also supports a ban on oil tankers in the coastal waters.
“To say that they would ban it altogether simply does not make any commercial or strategic sense,” Jiang said.
“The pipeline built to the Pacific coast will diversify Canada’s market substantially,” he added, suggesting countries such as China and India could move to invest in oil refineries in the Edmonton region, if they gained access to oilsands fuel.
While Ignatieff doesn’t support a northern B.C. oil shipping route — which Enbridge asserts will create about 1,150 long-term jobs — the federal Liberal leader contended that the Harper government has cost Canadians jobs by ignoring, until recently, its relationship with China.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who came to power in 2006, didn’t make his first visit to the emerging superpower until December 2009.
“He put the relationship in the deep freeze for three years,” said Ignatieff, who just returned from the country. “China is so much the future of this economy and they’ve neglected that relationship. I want to build it.”
Jiang agrees that the Harper government neglected China for too long, but believes the federal Conservatives are now making progress on this crucial foreign relationship.
Ignatieff, whose party hasn’t made significant gains on the Tories in recent public-opinion polls, will this week begin a summer bus tour of every province and territory in a bid to strengthen Liberal support.
“One of the things we’ve got to get out of our system is the idea that we are the natural party of government,” Ignatieff told party backers.
“We have to earn the confidence of Canadians,” he said. “We have to earn it door by door, handshake by handshake, baby by baby, speech by speech, phone call by phone call.”
Calgary Herald
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