CONCERNED CONSERVATIVE
Breakenridge: What madness is this Free Alberta Strategy?
Author of the article:Rob Breakenridge • for the Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 •
Author of the article:Rob Breakenridge • for the Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 •
Angela Pitt, MLA for Airdrie-East and deputy Speaker in the Alberta legislature, is one of several UCP supporters of the Free Alberta Strategy.
PHOTO BY SUPPLIED
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Good news feels hard to come by in Alberta these days, but for those with an interest in pipeline construction (most Albertans, I suspect) there is some news to celebrate.
Last Friday, the Line 3 pipeline replacement project officially went into service and will be fully operational by month’s end. Work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, meanwhile, continues apace.
Both of these pipeline projects cross provincial boundaries: Line 3 runs through Saskatchewan and Manitoba before entering the U.S., while TMX, of course, crosses B.C. to the west coast. The decision to approve these projects, though, was Ottawa’s alone.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba didn’t seem too bothered by the Line 3 project, but B.C. was very much against TMX. B.C.’s premier vowed to use “every tool in the toolbox” to stop the pipeline, including a law that would give the province control over any bitumen being transported across the province.
In 2019, B.C. lost its case in the B.C. Court of Appeal and then suffered a thorough rejection from the Supreme Court of Canada. Federal jurisdiction in this realm is quite clear, as B.C. has learned.
These decisions were hailed by the Alberta government, from the premier on down to his caucus. Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt, for example, called it a “big win for Alberta,” and noted her pleasure at seeing the Supreme Court dismiss B.C.’s “attempt to regulate the heavy oil content.”
The rule of law prevailed and B.C. was forced to accept its defeat. Imagine the chaos, though, if B.C. had simply declared that federal jurisdiction and Supreme Court rulings were null and void in the province. Surely folks like Angela Pitt would have been outraged — and rightly so.
Yet the very same Angela Pitt is now arguing that Alberta should embrace precisely that strategy, that we should be the ones sowing chaos and spitting in the face of the very constitutional order that was being celebrated in these rulings.
The hypocrisy and the short-sightedness are staggering.
Pitt and fellow UCP MLA Jason Stephan (Red Deer-South) have signed onto something called the Free Alberta Strategy, launched by the Alberta Institute. Nathan Cooper, UCP MLA and Speaker of the house, was also on hand for the strategy’s unveiling, although he claims only as an interested observer.
The idea of the Free Alberta Strategy is to make Alberta a sovereign jurisdiction within Canada. This involves some reasonable proposals like a provincial pension plan and police force, but it also involves some ideas bordering on the insane.
For example, it calls on Alberta to introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would somehow create the authority to decide which federal laws apply in Alberta and which areas of federal jurisdiction we can usurp.
It also calls on Alberta to set up a revenue collection agency to collect not just provincial tax revenues, but federal revenues too. We would then apparently just withhold federal revenues as we see fit. And when Alberta inevitably suffers resounding and humiliating court defeats over all of this, we’ll just disregard those rulings somehow.
Never mind the message that this sends about Alberta’s commitment to political and legal stability — something I suspect major corporations are concerned about — if any of this were to somehow succeed, then the very legal and constitutional principles that led to the aforementioned progress on pipelines would be flushed away.
If we didn’t already know the actors behind this document, one might suspect that this was an attempt to discredit all of the Alberta government’s “Fair Deal” strategy, including the upcoming equalization referendum.
Alberta has some legitimate complaints about this current federal government and, more broadly, Confederation itself. There will be zero audience for any of that if we embrace the madness of the Free Alberta Strategy.
The premier probably needn’t concern himself with a rambling manifesto authored by private citizens. But if these ideas are spreading within his caucus, then we might have a problem on our hands.
“Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge” airs weekdays 12:30-3 p.m. on 770 CHQR rob.breakenridge@corusent.com Twitter: @RobBreakenridge
Article content
Good news feels hard to come by in Alberta these days, but for those with an interest in pipeline construction (most Albertans, I suspect) there is some news to celebrate.
Last Friday, the Line 3 pipeline replacement project officially went into service and will be fully operational by month’s end. Work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, meanwhile, continues apace.
Both of these pipeline projects cross provincial boundaries: Line 3 runs through Saskatchewan and Manitoba before entering the U.S., while TMX, of course, crosses B.C. to the west coast. The decision to approve these projects, though, was Ottawa’s alone.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba didn’t seem too bothered by the Line 3 project, but B.C. was very much against TMX. B.C.’s premier vowed to use “every tool in the toolbox” to stop the pipeline, including a law that would give the province control over any bitumen being transported across the province.
In 2019, B.C. lost its case in the B.C. Court of Appeal and then suffered a thorough rejection from the Supreme Court of Canada. Federal jurisdiction in this realm is quite clear, as B.C. has learned.
These decisions were hailed by the Alberta government, from the premier on down to his caucus. Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt, for example, called it a “big win for Alberta,” and noted her pleasure at seeing the Supreme Court dismiss B.C.’s “attempt to regulate the heavy oil content.”
The rule of law prevailed and B.C. was forced to accept its defeat. Imagine the chaos, though, if B.C. had simply declared that federal jurisdiction and Supreme Court rulings were null and void in the province. Surely folks like Angela Pitt would have been outraged — and rightly so.
Yet the very same Angela Pitt is now arguing that Alberta should embrace precisely that strategy, that we should be the ones sowing chaos and spitting in the face of the very constitutional order that was being celebrated in these rulings.
The hypocrisy and the short-sightedness are staggering.
Pitt and fellow UCP MLA Jason Stephan (Red Deer-South) have signed onto something called the Free Alberta Strategy, launched by the Alberta Institute. Nathan Cooper, UCP MLA and Speaker of the house, was also on hand for the strategy’s unveiling, although he claims only as an interested observer.
The idea of the Free Alberta Strategy is to make Alberta a sovereign jurisdiction within Canada. This involves some reasonable proposals like a provincial pension plan and police force, but it also involves some ideas bordering on the insane.
For example, it calls on Alberta to introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would somehow create the authority to decide which federal laws apply in Alberta and which areas of federal jurisdiction we can usurp.
It also calls on Alberta to set up a revenue collection agency to collect not just provincial tax revenues, but federal revenues too. We would then apparently just withhold federal revenues as we see fit. And when Alberta inevitably suffers resounding and humiliating court defeats over all of this, we’ll just disregard those rulings somehow.
Never mind the message that this sends about Alberta’s commitment to political and legal stability — something I suspect major corporations are concerned about — if any of this were to somehow succeed, then the very legal and constitutional principles that led to the aforementioned progress on pipelines would be flushed away.
If we didn’t already know the actors behind this document, one might suspect that this was an attempt to discredit all of the Alberta government’s “Fair Deal” strategy, including the upcoming equalization referendum.
Alberta has some legitimate complaints about this current federal government and, more broadly, Confederation itself. There will be zero audience for any of that if we embrace the madness of the Free Alberta Strategy.
The premier probably needn’t concern himself with a rambling manifesto authored by private citizens. But if these ideas are spreading within his caucus, then we might have a problem on our hands.
“Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge” airs weekdays 12:30-3 p.m. on 770 CHQR rob.breakenridge@corusent.com Twitter: @RobBreakenridge
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