The Bloc Québecois Are Trying To Kill The Teck Mine

The Bloc Québécois proposed a motion to outright kill the Frontier Teck mine that they will later officially introduced into parliament later this week.

This proposal to stop the Teck mine project is one of three motions the Bloc are set to debate in parliament in their next opposition day, but the party has not indicated which one of the three will be brought forward next. 

Yves-François Blanchet will personally put forward the motion that reads, “That the House call on the government to not authorize the Teck Frontier mine development, as this project can not be reconciled with the Paris Agreement targets.” 

The motion has already been seconded by Bloc MP Alain Therrien from the riding of La Prairie.

Fort McMurray MP David Yurdiga confirmed the seriousness of the Bloc’s proposal to The National Telegraph and also gave his critique of the Québécois party’s actions.

Mr. Yurdiga said, “The Bloc Quebecois indicated they will introduce a motion in Parliament to kill the proposed Frontier Teck mine in Northern Alberta. I find this potential motion is very irresponsible and will only fuel Western alienation. The Bloc’s proposed motion, should in my opinion, also include that Quebec will no longer accept equalization payments.”

Yurdiga brings up an important imbalance that is likely to only fuel the Wexit Party’s movement whether or not the Bloc’s motion is passed or not. The Bloc has show how apathetic they are to unity in Canada, especially with their recent refusal to be in parliament for the Canadian national anthem.

Equalization hand is always getting bitten

For 2019-2020 the province of Quebec is already slated to get $13.1 billion in federal equalization transfers with the vast majority of that money coming from the province of Alberta. 

Denying Alberta the ability to pursue an energy project that will bring $20.6 billion to Alberta while still happily taking transfers payments for Quebec off the back of the energy industry is a irony that only furthers worsens western alienation.

It isn’t just the Bloc that is making westerners worried about the project being approved. The federal Liberal Environment Minister, Johnathan Wilkinson, seems to be trying to play up the environmental angle as much as possible, seemingly preparing the groundwork to kil the project.

Wilkinson said, “Certainly, one of those issues is how does this project fit with Canada’s commitments to achieving the reductions we are committing to (for) 2030, and the net zero commitment to 2050? I would just say again that it’s important that all provinces are working to help Canada to achieve its targets.”

The Teck mine has gone through 10 years of regulatory hoops already for approval. It has been considered in the interest of Canadians by a review panel from the Environment and Climate Change Ministry, both provincial and federal energy regulators have already given the project a green light, and all 14 Indigenious communities around the area have also given their go ahead.

The Alberta provincial government rejected the proposal floated by the Liberals to give aid to the province if the project is canceled, in order to deny the Liberals an excuse to suppress the energy industry and jobs opportunities for the west.

Whatever happens it seems unlikely that the Liberals will be coming out politically unscathed being pressured by the Bloc Québécois environmentalists and the entire western half of the country to act decisively on the Teck min in completely opposite ways. 

There is a chance issues like the Frontier Teck mine and recent radical environmentalist protests have placed the Liberal’s minority government in danger.