Facing loss of Alberta funding, halt of planned Calgary Green Line could cost $2.1B

EDMONTON – Observers are criticizing Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean’s suggestions on how the province might clean up its thousands of abandoned oil wells, saying they favour industry and lack input from the public.

“Albertans are owed a better explanation than they have received so far about why this is necessary,” said Martin Olszynski, a professor of resource law at the University of Calgary.

Jean’s department is opening consultations on how to deal with Alberta’s nearly half-million oil and gas wells, two-thirds of which are not producing. Estimates of the potential cost vary wildly into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

In an interview, Jean suggested that although it’s not his preferred solution, some form of public assistance may be needed to clean up the mess despite industry’s legal obligations. He also suggested municipalities may have to take a haircut on their tax levies and that industry’s regulatory burden may need to be lightened.

But Olszynski said many energy companies are thriving. Any kind of a publicly financed bailout would raise serious questions, Olszynski said.

“There is no rational explanation for this support when you realize this industry is not a monolith. In the absence of a better explanation, Albertans are properly left to wonder what’s going on.”

Katie Morrison of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said using public resources on the problem doesn’t address how it came to be in the first place.

“We can look at the short of what needs to be done immediately, (but) we also need to be looking at how do we prevent this. I don’t see anything in what (Jean’s) been talking about so far that’s going to prevent the situation from happening over and over.”

Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin said municipal taxes are well down the list of a well owner’s expenses and that 94 per cent of companies pay their taxes just fine.

“This narrative that (reducing) municipal taxes is what’s going to save the industry is a completely ridiculous notion,” he said.

He said business groups such as the Alberta Enterprise Group — once headed by now-premier Danielle Smith — have been lobbying for municipal tax reductions for years.

“The government’s going to do this on the backs of rural Albertans,” McLauchlin said. “Rural MLAs need to speak up.”

Opposition New Democrat energy critic Nagwan Al-Guneid said reducing environmental liabilities for energy companies with public resources amounts to breaking the law.

“It is unacceptable to use public money to clean up the legal obligations of companies to clean up the environmental damage they cause,” she said.

Olszynski also questioned Jean’s statement that the Alberta Energy Regulator’s footprint is too large. He pointed out the province’s auditor general found in a January report that the regulator underestimated cleanup liabilities and didn’t have a good handle on pipeline reclamation or the state of Alberta’s 59,000 pieces of energy infrastructure.

“It’s hard to square the auditor general’s concerns with the idea of a lighter regulatory burden.”

If anything, the regulator’s reach should be stronger, said Al-Guneid.

“I think we have great regulations,” she said. “They’re not being enforced.”

Both Olszynski and Morrison criticized the lack of public input in Jean’s consultations.

“It’s often that (this government) looks at the industry perspective and the economic perspective but not at the whole picture,” Morrison said.

Olszynski said leaving the public out of such discussions is how Alberta wound up with such a large liability in the first place.

“Surely, by now, you would think maybe we should bring the public in.”

Richard Wong of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said government moves have helped operators reduce the inventory of inactive wells by 18,000 from 2018 to 2023. The overall percentage of inactive wells has fallen from 21 to 17 over the last four years.

“While there is more to be done to further accelerate the process for well closures, (the association) is looking forward to working with other stakeholders on potential regulatory, policy and fiscal measures that may be needed to address the challenges in regions of Alberta with mature oil and gas-producing assets through the province’s mature asset strategy consultations,” Wong wrote in an email.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

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OTTAWA – Next week could be the first opportunity for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to introduce a non-confidence motion asking the other parties to topple the Liberal government.

Poilievre promised he would bring such a motion at the first chance he had, after the NDP ended its supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals earlier this month.

It now appears that chance will come on Sept. 24.

Opposition parties can introduce motions, including those declaring non-confidence in the government, on specific days designated in the House of Commons calendar.

The number of opposition days and which party they go to is determined at the start of a session, and the actual days are scheduled by the government.

During a meeting of House leaders on Tuesday, the government told the other parties that the first of five opposition days for the Conservatives this fall will be next week.

That means a debate on the Tory motion is likely to happen Sept. 24 and the vote would be the following afternoon.

The schedule for next week will be confirmed in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Poilievre brought a non-confidence motion in March, asking opposition parties to join him in triggering a “carbon tax election,” but the NDP and Bloc Québécois joined the Liberals in voting the motion down.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has said that without the supply-and-confidence deal his caucus will take each vote as it comes. He has also repeatedly said Canadians have lost faith in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.

The NDP wants pharmacare legislation to pass before the next election. The bill in question is currently before the Senate.

The Conservatives would likely need support from both the NDP and the Bloc for a non-confidence motion to succeed.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Tuesday he doesn’t intend to be the one to trigger an election but he expects the Liberals to provide something in exchange.

Blanchet’s party wants the government to increase the Old Age Security pension for all seniors by 10 per cent. In 2022 the Liberals increased the amount for seniors over the age of 75.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.

The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.

The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.

It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.

Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.

A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.

During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.

They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.

“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.

Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”

Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.

These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”

These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.

Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.

The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”

It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.

“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”

This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.

“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”

However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.

Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.

In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.

It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.

In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.

Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.

Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.