And so we have ourselves an out and out provincial trade war, thanks to John Horgan and the B.C. NDP.
Surely Mr. Horgan and his cabinet knew that Alberta couldn’t take the ongoing actions by the B.C. NDP government to stop the approved Kinder Morgan pipeline lying down. Especially given that all our junior PM has done so far is talk — drama teacher that he is.
Talk is over on this file and Premier Rachel Notley has come out firing: no more wine (worth $17 million annually to B.C. wineries) to be sold in Alberta and talks on buying electricity (worth up to $500 million annually) from B.C. have been halted.
While no one wants to see an all-out trade war between provinces, what was Notley to do? With the united Conservative Party at her heels and her economy still largely dependent on oil and gas development and sales, she had to counter a blatantly unconstitutional action by B.C.
Horgan and his ministers can talk all they like about the environment and a made in B.C. this or that, but we live in a country, a federation, where there is a sharing of powers — and in this case the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline comes under federal jurisdiction — otherwise we don’t have a country if inter-provincial movement of goods is up to provincial whim. This project has gone through an environmental review and extensive technical and public review.
B.C. is acting like it can make the rules on interprovincial movement of goods, usurping Ottawa’s legitimate role.
It cannot.
B.C. should remember it is receiving $6.6 billion from the federal government this year, not to mention many other federal activities in the province and I remember in the 1990s when B.C. received equalization — it was a have-not province. It could happen again. It is sad what happens when you get a little money —-one gets a little foggy and forgets from whence one came.
Get off your high horse, B.C., and start acting like a mature member of the federation, not like a sulky spoiled child.
Brian Peckford
Nanaimo
