Alberta Mayor Fights The Liberals On The Teck Mine

The new predicament that is facing Alberta and the rest of Western Canada; if the Trudeau’s Liberal government outright rejected the proposed Teck Frontier oil sands. A new national unity crisis will sever the fragile bond of a familial relationship between Prairie provinces and the rest of Canada.  

The Grit MP Mark Gerretsenis has called forth using a petition for ending the proposed Teck Frontier oil sands project. It has already taken a decade to pass all legal and environmental requirements for the Teck mine. A petition to cancel the project at this point is simply an illogical attack against the Canadian economy.

Federal Minister of the Environment Jonathan Wilkinson threatened to reject the Teck Frontier Project, as he claims it would surpass Alberta’s 100 MT emissions caps. That doesn’t make much sense as the current emissions cap was introduced but never passed by Alberta’s former NDP government. 

The possibility of breaching provincial laws is invalid. Even with the emissions cap towards the limits of 100 did exist, current estimate Alberta’s emissions are predicted to be around  86.5 MT this year, and Teck mine will only emit about 4 MT emissions per year if built. 

Suffice it to say it would be disrespectful of the decade long approval process to kill Teck today on thinly veiled political grounds. It would create a detrimental effect on investor confidence in Canada. When the United States sees record-breaking economic growth, Canada is in peril of scaring away foreign investment. Killing the Teck mine could signal the start of a slow bleeding death for Canadian prosperity. 

The National Telegraph interviewed Mayor Don Scott of the regional municipality of Woodland Buffalo, who was recently in Ottawa, advocating for the approval of the new Oil Sand mine for the benefit of his community, the rest of Fort McMurray and all the First Nations that approve the new Teck Frontier mine. 

Scott said it would create, “75 000 construction jobs tied to the project, and 25 000 operation jobs once construction is done, and we got most of the Indigenous support across the board.” 

Teck is responsible, and everyone wins

The created revenue is beneficial to all of Canada. Mayor Scott estimates that depending on the price of oil is, “75 billion dollars royalty and taxes will go to governments across Canada, in various ways. Every Canadians will benefit from that money that will pay for doctors, nurses, teachers and all [public] services that [we] have come to accept and appreciate.” 

If the project gets the green light from the federal government, “Alberta is seen as open for business and Canada is open for business; we have seen the other investment free to go from the other parts of the world. We are in a competitive environment, and if the investment leaves Alberta, that hurts everyone.” Getting the signal for approval is a good sign for the world that “you can count on Canada to get a project moving, even if it took ten years.” 

According to Mayor Scott, his discussion with the Environment Minister seems to have been a “fair hearing and [taken into] fair consideration.”

Canada’s broad equity needs to come to fruition to maintain the current dialogue of economic prosperity, reconciliation and protection of the environment if the country is ever to repair its sense of unity.

If Trudeau’s government fails to balance consideration towards the West, First Nations, and the environment, the disposition will lead to discord and sectarian divisions. Canada depends on prosperity in maintaining our “Peace, Order and Good Government.”