Now it all becomes clear: Premier due on Pelosi's mat next week
Stelmach's measured response to recent petro-goofs seemed out of character until we learned of his plans to see U.S. Speaker
By Graham Thomson, edmontonjournal.com
September 4, 2010
Every week the Alberta government releases what's officially called the "public itinerary" of meetings for the premier, cabinet and caucus -- which means, of course, journalists are left wondering what's on the unofficial "private" itinerary that we don't get to see.
Not surprisingly, the private meetings are usually more interesting than the ones in public. And next week is no exception.
Premier Ed Stelmach's most important meeting is not on his official itinerary.
It's in Ottawa on Wednesday with one of the most powerful politicians in the United States: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi is attending a G8 Speakers meeting, but she also wants to do some research into Canada's always controversial oilsands. So, she's inviting Stelmach and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall along for a chat. But Pelosi apparently likes to do her homework and is not simply relying on the sales pitch from cheerleaders Stelmach and Wall.
She is also inviting along environmental groups, including the moderate and well-respected but still outspoken Pembina Institute.
Why isn't this meeting on Stelmach's itinerary, especially since it would be hard to keep such a high-profile event secret?
His office says it's not meant to be secret, just that as a matter of protocol it's not on his official itinerary because he didn't initiate the meeting. Which means the meeting would have been kept under wraps if not for word leaking out from other groups invited.
That in itself is not a big deal, but it would have been nice for us to have known about the invitation on Wednesday when Stelmach made his conciliatory comments about a new University of Alberta-led study on pollution from the oilsands, written by world-renowned aquatics expert David Schindler and his colleagues.
Knowing about the Pelosi meeting would have put Stelmach's comments in a slightly fuller context and helped explain why Stelmach didn't toe the government's usual line of dismissing or rebutting anything critical of the oilsands.
Stelmach said he had "great respect" for Schindler personally and then went one giant step further by saying he welcomed Schindler's conclusions that contradict government scientists who continue to claim any elevated levels of toxic elements in the oilsands are naturally occurring. Stelmach said he wants government scientists to sit down with Schindler: "Let it be discussed scientist to scientist. If there's an improvement to be made, it will be made."
Stelmach's comments were reasonable and laudable -- and to anybody who has a hard time believing government claims that oilsands development has no impact on the environment -- also long overdue.
But in hindsight it would seem Stelmach's comments weren't just for the benefit of Albertans or even a national audience. He was also talking indirectly to Pelosi.
Americans, particularly Democratic politicians in an election year, are leery of the environmental impact of the oilsands. Some 50 members of Congress wrote a letter opposing the Keystone pipeline to deliver oilsands bitumen to Texas, and it didn't help Alberta's cause in July to have an Enbridge pipeline spill 20,000 barrels of oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River.
Americans want our oil, but not at any cost.
That's why Stelmach couldn't have gone to Ottawa to meet Pelosi with the Schindler report hanging over his head. It is a damning report because it contradicts years of government assurances that everything is OK in the oilsands. If Pelosi hadn't seen the report herself, no doubt the Pembina Institute or somebody else would have brought it along.
To simply have shot the messenger, as Energy Minister Ron Liepert tried to do by dismissing Schindler, or simply ignore the messenger and say everything is OK, as Environment Minister Rob Renner tried to do, would have undermined Stelmach's credibility in the eyes of the most powerful woman in U.S. political history.
That's not to say Stelmach was merely playing cynical politics on Wednesday by praising Schindler and the report. Both men seem to have a sincere respect for each other and Schindler calls Stelmach a "decent" man who needs better scientific advice.
Whether Stelmach heeds Schindler's scientific advice is a question left unanswered for now.
But it would seem Stelmach is getting -- or is finally listening to -- better political advice these days. Not only did he react thoughtfully to Schindler's report, but he also offered a measured response to news that a government cultural fund contributed $55,000 to an anti-oilsands film.
Stelmach said he was personally upset, but he didn't think it right for politicians to become censors, approving or disapproving cultural projects based on political whims.
He also managed to steer clear of a political storm brewing between the legislature's Speaker Ken Kowalski, and the Wildrose Alliance. Kowalski chairs an all-party committee, dominated by Conservatives, that denied the Wildrose caucus more funding this year and more recently the clerk of the legislature, who reports to Kowalski, told the Wildrose to stop naming its party leader Danielle Smith in caucus news releases because she's not an elected MLA.
Kowalski's office says he had nothing to do with the clerk's warning. But if you really think Kowalski, a powerful and canny politician who has served 31 years as a Conservative MLA, has no influence on the political environment in the legislature, you probably believe that oilsands development, the largest energy project in the world, has no influence on the natural environment.
gthomson@thejournal.canwest.com
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