Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is warning of dire consequences if Canada fails to properly conduct its pipeline review process. In an interview on BNN, Wall said the debate over TransCanada’s (TRP.TO) proposed Energy East oil pipeline threatens to divide the nation regionally, as western provinces feel their needs are an afterthought to decision-makers in Central Canada.
Related.
h/t Ken (Kulak)
“as western provinces feel their needs are an afterthought to decision-makers in Central Canada”
The West wanted in? Well now you’re in, boys. -Everybody’s- needs are an afterthought to the decision makes in Central Canada. Except their own. They play the tune and we dance, that’s how it is.
Canada elected the Shiny Potato. This is what you get. You asked for it, you got it. Toyota.
Brad Wall is not going to fight for anything the west wants. Brad Wall would rather build build more bird choppers, or throw people out of candidate to please my enemies. Brad Wall fights only to win elections; nothing else matters.
The Laurentian Elite put forth a Shiny P’tite P’tat and the people fell for it and they took back Canada to run it for themselves. We are back to hewers of wood and carriers of water. The western cow mill be milked again.
At this time Brad Wall is the only premier that is standing up for the west. It’s a lonely position when you meet with your counterparts, especially when Notley knifes him in the back for speaking up for us.
He is the best premier Saskatchewan has had in my lifetime and the best one Alberta has had in almost a quarter century.
Kevin – politics is the art of the possible – you can question his motives ,you can dislike some or many of his desicions , but there is no question he is the only premier speaking out against this headlong rush to green disaster advocated by the Liberal’s and other premiers.
I agree with you and Smitherenzes, and letting Sask Power erect bird wackers comes to mind.
Shiny Pony doesn’t care about the west. The Liberals don’t care about the west. Never have, never will. Hell, a good old fashioned national unity crisis plays right into their electoral handbook. They spin themselves as the only ‘national values’ / ‘truly Canadian’ party, whatever verbiage they decide to slap on it. Ignoring of course that they frequently foment the very crises from which they then profit. And the media never calls them on it, because look! isn’t that a Conservative talking about evil Muslims?!
The Energy East pipeline will not win approval. Not under the Liberals. Not a chance in hell. They’ll drag the process out for years if necessary to avoid giving the outright appearance of hostility to the west, but then they’ll ultimately reject it, sounding so sad, so mournful about it, because the First Nations just couldn’t give it their sacred blessing, Quebec’s environmental concerns just couldn’t be satisfied, blah blah blah (Quebec would rather have exploding railcars in their towns it seems. Criminally stupid people).
Such is life in Canada until at least 2023.
Spud the show dog will finish the job his old man started. NEP2 will be implemented.
They have figured out that a gun registry isn’t necessary to eliminate firearms. You just let the provincial firearms officer stop issuing PAL’s for any reason whatsoever and then sending the police by to collect the firearms and issue the appropriate charges.
It’s over. Spud completes the job.
The problem is that protesting and preventing pipelines is a consequence-free activity. Quebec politicians, pros at blackmailing the ROC, know that there’s only positive outcomes for them. More money, kudos from activists. If there were negative consequences, maybe things would be different.
In the case of EE, it could be successfully proven that Que is neither opposed to pipelines nor petroleum products. There’s already pipelines running across the province. And it’s not about oil because some of those pipes transport oil. Finally, it’s not even about “dirty” oil because they aren’t protesting the MENA oil imports that are shipped to/through Quebec. MENA countries are far dirtier when you consider their human rights records, subjugation of women, brutal treatment of gays, atheists, secularists. Nope, it’s about Quebec politcian’s hatred of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Fine, they dislike us. Whatever. But, it’s still a country and if they knowingly, willfully financially damage another province then it should hurt Quebec too. Perhaps a reduction of equalization payments equal to the financial damage caused by their conscientious objection to prairie oil. Estimate the loss due to lower prices, lost jobs, etc. and hand Quebec politicians the bill.
Perhaps Wall should create “Revenue Saskatchewan” with the mandate to collect Income taxes and GST/PST on income and sales generated within the province of Saskatchewan, thereby taking control of transfer payments back to the federal government. Turn the Equalization program on it’s head by collecting the Fed portion of taxes using the same Fed formula of equalization which utilizes a national per capita average in determining transfer payments, and return the surplus back to the taxpayers of Saskatchewan. Invoke the Not Withstanding clause in the enabling legislation based on Equality Rights, the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law. In this way, the taxpayers of Saskatchewan are taxed equally among their peers in other provinces based on National per capita averages, and makes other tax authorities more accountable to their ratepayers by removing the incentive to mismanage their affairs to gain more of the equalization pie.
“The problem is that protesting and preventing pipelines is a consequence-free activity.”
And that’s the absolute truth, LC. And it is going to remain as such until and unless the private sector starts giving these f****** parasites a good taste of the country they crave.
Every tractor-trailer and truck hauling fuel and food into our major cities should, without any warning, pull over and park for about a week in mid-January.
35 years ago the western conservative parties saw the Wester Canada Concept as a bigger political threat than the NDP or Lieberals. They were so so wrong.
And they are again if they don’t back up the rhetoric with action.
Get out there and state the facts Brad…the folks will follow.
And if that means getting out of this CON-federation…so be it. Could we do any worse?
“…thereby taking control of transfer payments back to the federal government.”
1. The provinces don’t make transfer payments to the Federal Government. It works the other way around.
2. The provinces can levy and collect any provincial taxes and fees they like but they have no constitutional powers over Federal tax collection.
Lest you misinterpret my views, let me just state that I’m no fan of the current children’s crusade running our Federal Government. The very fact that a country fortunate enough to be able to supply all its own domestic energy needs has failed utterly to do so speaks volumes of the lack of national strategic thinking in Ottawa.
Canadian values are Quebecois values and it’s been that way for about 50 years.
Lester Pearson bent over backwards to keep Quebec happy and keep its premier, Jean Lasage, out of his hair and to presuade the FLQ that it’s not a nice thing to blow up post boxes. That’s how we eventually ended up with Dirty Pierre as PM, thanks to a certain incident involving a small-time criminal named Lucien Rivard. (Look that one up. Only in Canada, you say…..)
PET continued with it for no other reason than to keep Quebec voters from booting him out of office, particularly after October 1970 and the War Measures Act.
During the 1970s, Alberta, under the Peter Lougheed PCs, gained a great deal of political and economic clout due to rising oil prices. Lougheed wanted to charge world levels for the stuff but Quebec, acting like a perpetually spoiled brat, started whining. Trudeau, of course, caved in because he needed to keep buying Quebec votes because of what happened in 1970 and, later, the election of Rene Levesque’s Parti Quebecois.
Then the 1980 referendum came and went and it was business as usual. In 1986, Lyin’ Bryan gave the finger to Western Canada when the CF-18 maintenance contract went to the old Canadair (now part of Bombardier) instead of Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg.
The rest is history.
My usual rant dwells on the mistakes of Reform.
Fundamentally West versus East has two major focus economic and cultural. The East has a failed industrial infrastructure and are trying to recast their base on technology. This effort was funded nationally and continues as such. The West is primarily resource exports and recent environmental roadblocks are shutting this down.
Culturally eastern Canada does not have a serious appreciation for western Canada. This attitude has an economic perspective as a prosperous West threatens Eastern Canada both economically and politically. Quebec is the most rabid advocate as their #2 spot is ultimately usurped by the West. It comes down to who benefits most at the trough.
Ontario is a classic example of a constituency threatened by global economic competition and responded by electing a series of governments who did not acknowledge the threat and when events overtook them still did/have not. The current response is to ask for more handouts from the country with no concrete economic plan other than wishful thinking.
The West continues about their business but culturally is slipping into the Ontario disease. B.C., AB, SASK and perhaps now perhaps MAN should have a united political and economic plan. The idea that energy can be held captive in Canada should not even be a debatable item. These 4 provinces should be issuing ultimatums to Ottawa and nothing less. If B.C.’s Liberal Party does not make a pipeline route available then their mandate should be challenged.
The fear from Ottawa will be whether the demands from the west will end with a successful energy export pipeline.
That reminds me of another pet peeve regarding Equalization: the idea that provinces don’t pay in therefore provincial government and residents of those provinces can’t complain about the arrangement. In fact, not only can they not complain, they’re morons for even making the suggestion/connection. Generally, this particular point is made in the most condescending, arrogant tone you can imagine. (Not directed at you, JJM)
Perhaps if it was explained using an analogy that academics and j-school graduates would understand? Imagine that a university demanded that every employee of every department must pay $1000 to the university. That money was then given to only engineering, archeology and religious studies. Every other department gets nothing. What argument do you think critics would make? That it’s unfair to individuals or that it’s unfair to the departments who get nothing? There’s actually a case that both individuals and departments are getting ripped off. But, I doubt that those critics who complained that their department was being treated unfairly would be subjected to the kind of arrogant and condescending sneers lthat equalization opponents receive.
The Fraser Institute report referred seems to get a lot of stuff wrong. For a more realistic, albeit more cynical, view see winface.com/smith . Basically, this started as a good idea back in about 1928, was institutionalized by Trudeau in his “constitition” act; and has been used to empower liberals (at the expense of the west) ever since.
Canada exists only because upper and lower Canada hated Americans more than they hated each other!
All the rest of us are just along for the ride dispite our genuine feelings of national patriotism that they love to use against us.
“- politics is the art of the possible -”
A phrase surely dreamed up by a politician for the gullible masses, to make the real definition – the acquisition and retention of power – a little less ugly.
Brad Wall is right and it becomes increasingly obvious with the behaviour the the ‘dear leader’. For the last few years the west has been living a ‘western spring’, but we’re now clearly being told to “shut up, know our place and do what you’re told”. It has become painfully obvious that under a liberal or any other left wing government we have no future in Canada. Just ask Albertans, they are learning this painful truth right now.
If Trump should manage to win their election this fall it would be wise for western Canadian leaders to put out feelers immediately. Being under American control couldn’t possibly be any worse then what the eastern elites, the French and the earth muffin crowd want for us.
Possibly it is to retain power, but then you see what the conservatives can achieve in opposition. My case in point is the mere mention a substantial offer for Sasktel would have to be considered brings a firestorm of negativity . This in spite of at today’s rate of technological change telecommunications companies could be less valuable than buggy whip manufacturers . Of course we could bring in legislation to prevent it’s demise while the rest of the world advances . but I guess I’m just gullible.
Here’s a gift to Alberta, courtesy of the Potato Prince:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN-FyUJwMq8
I think Brian Lilley’s correct in his assessment of any reaction to the unemployment numbers. If it doesn’t affect the PP’s eastern voter base, he simply doesn’t care.
Like father, like son.
In case anyone missed which provinces had their hand out for the payout from NEP1, Saskatchewan was one of the provinces who built their socialist Dreams on the destruction of Alberta’s future.
Yes, really.
All of a sudden Saskies like Kate and Lance have a Saskatchewan Party and they shit almost daily on Albertan’s efforts to get better government?
I hope you CHOKE on your hypocrisy Kate and Lance. Literally, CHOKE.
You are neither conservative nor for the advancement of liberty.
Saskatchewan is so much a welfare single mother and yet, and yet Premier Wall spends how many $Billions on a Football Stadium?
Feck Me. Why can’t you Sports Assholes pay for your own entertainment?
Yes the Sask Party has it’s basket of boondoggles. To mention a few; the Regina city bypass, the requirement to add food to gasoline (ethanol), the power generation plant carbon capture, and yes the money wasted on a new football stadium. If a new stadium was really needed, it should have been built were there wasn’t one – Saskatoon. Unfortunately too often there is not much difference between the Sask Party and the eNDP when it comes to doing stupid things.
Brad Wall at times reminds me of Hannibal of Carthage. Hannibal invading from the north destroyed the Roman army but failed to advance on undefended Rome. By this mistake Hannibal eventually lost and Carthage was wiped of the map. One of Hannibal’s generals is quoted as saying to Hannibal after he destroyed the Roman army; “You know how to win but you don’t know how to use it.” A picture of Brad Wall and the Sask Party.
You are correct. I was so ticked when Wall was throwing money around when Sunny times were here.. Typical politics. As a businessman ( pardon me ” business person”} I watched my dollars because I learned sunny days do not last. But the alternative was much worse.
Words are cheap. Only action counts. His actions are things like throwing people out of cabinet for Facebook posts. His actions are standing silent when the guns were taken from High River. But hey, you just keep sacrificing your freedoms one at a time, never getting any back, and tell yourself whatever you want to hear. I don’t do that.