A friend recently reminded me of the 2018 oil production curtailment imposed by Premier Rachel Notley, and supported by the UCP and the Alberta Party, which normalized the heavy oil price differential. He then pointed out that there is an interesting election line-up in the constituency of Airdrie-Cochrane. The current Member of the Legislative Assembly for this area is Peter Guthrie, the Minister of Energy in the current UCP government. The NDP contender is law professor Shaun Fluker, who has written extensively about government policy and has addressed many of the pressing energy issues in Alberta. So, the existing Energy Minister is being challenged by a potential new energy minister depending upon the outcome of the election.. Shaun FlukerShaun Fluker, NDP candidate for Airdrie-Cochrane. .This is going to be interesting..A lightning rod for energy policy in Alberta is Bill C-69 which is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court having been ruled unconstitutional by the Alberta Court of Appeals..Full disclosure, I worked in the resource development business and as an attainted member of NEB, lost my employment through the enactment of Bill C-69. When it comes to justifying a defence of this legislation, the bar for me is therefore quite high. On March 21 of this year, Professor Fluker made such a defence on behalf of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment at the Supreme Court of Canada hearings in Hearing 40195, the Attorney General of Canada v Attorney General of Alberta case (constitutionality of Bill C-69)..Preparing and presenting the arguments of a client does not necessarily give information about the personal views of the lawyer. But his opinions on issues such as the Species at Risk Act (SARA) and the need to involve a larger “public” in determining public interest, cause me to conclude that he and I are not likely to agree on which public policies best balance the three-legged regulatory stool described in my column last week. This, in turn, leads me to also doubt that he and I are on the same page with respect to Bill C-69. I could be wrong..Normally that is neither here nor there. Lots of people take issue with my positions. However, lots of people are not running for the Legislative Assembly with the possibility of becoming the next Minister of Energy for Alberta. In the broader context of the election, the people of Alberta need to know where all political parties participating in the election stand on important energy issues. In the constituency context, the voters in Airdrie-Cochrane need to know the energy positions of those who aspire to represent them..There is not a lot to be gleaned from the internet that sheds light on the energy positions of the political parties or the candidates contesting the Airdrie-Cochrane constituency. Maybe we can rectify this. With your help, dear reader, I propose to ask each of the candidates running in Airdrie-Cochrane the following five, energy related questions. But these are draft questions and I invite you to leave your thoughts about different questions or better wording of the questions in the comments section. I will ask the Western Standard to subsequently publish the answers received..1. How does your party propose to balance the social benefits and costs of resource development to balance Peter Lougheed’s three-legged stool: environment, social stability, and economic development? Please answer by stating the concerns and your party’s response to the concerns..2. What is your party’s position on the Just Transition/Sustainable Jobs Plan proposed by the federal government? Please answer by stating your concerns and your party’s response to the concerns..3. Does your party agree with the statement, “The federal government is encroaching on provincial energy legislative and regulatory territory. Why or why not?.4. Does your party support building more pipelines to export oil and gas from Alberta? Why or why not?.5. Does your party believe that Alberta needs to reach a net zero energy balance? If so, what is the timetable proposed by your party for achieving net zero, what are the potential obstacles to achieving net zero, and what are the top three policies to meet the timetable proposed? (A definition of net zero will be included with the question.)
A friend recently reminded me of the 2018 oil production curtailment imposed by Premier Rachel Notley, and supported by the UCP and the Alberta Party, which normalized the heavy oil price differential. He then pointed out that there is an interesting election line-up in the constituency of Airdrie-Cochrane. The current Member of the Legislative Assembly for this area is Peter Guthrie, the Minister of Energy in the current UCP government. The NDP contender is law professor Shaun Fluker, who has written extensively about government policy and has addressed many of the pressing energy issues in Alberta. So, the existing Energy Minister is being challenged by a potential new energy minister depending upon the outcome of the election.. Shaun FlukerShaun Fluker, NDP candidate for Airdrie-Cochrane. .This is going to be interesting..A lightning rod for energy policy in Alberta is Bill C-69 which is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court having been ruled unconstitutional by the Alberta Court of Appeals..Full disclosure, I worked in the resource development business and as an attainted member of NEB, lost my employment through the enactment of Bill C-69. When it comes to justifying a defence of this legislation, the bar for me is therefore quite high. On March 21 of this year, Professor Fluker made such a defence on behalf of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment at the Supreme Court of Canada hearings in Hearing 40195, the Attorney General of Canada v Attorney General of Alberta case (constitutionality of Bill C-69)..Preparing and presenting the arguments of a client does not necessarily give information about the personal views of the lawyer. But his opinions on issues such as the Species at Risk Act (SARA) and the need to involve a larger “public” in determining public interest, cause me to conclude that he and I are not likely to agree on which public policies best balance the three-legged regulatory stool described in my column last week. This, in turn, leads me to also doubt that he and I are on the same page with respect to Bill C-69. I could be wrong..Normally that is neither here nor there. Lots of people take issue with my positions. However, lots of people are not running for the Legislative Assembly with the possibility of becoming the next Minister of Energy for Alberta. In the broader context of the election, the people of Alberta need to know where all political parties participating in the election stand on important energy issues. In the constituency context, the voters in Airdrie-Cochrane need to know the energy positions of those who aspire to represent them..There is not a lot to be gleaned from the internet that sheds light on the energy positions of the political parties or the candidates contesting the Airdrie-Cochrane constituency. Maybe we can rectify this. With your help, dear reader, I propose to ask each of the candidates running in Airdrie-Cochrane the following five, energy related questions. But these are draft questions and I invite you to leave your thoughts about different questions or better wording of the questions in the comments section. I will ask the Western Standard to subsequently publish the answers received..1. How does your party propose to balance the social benefits and costs of resource development to balance Peter Lougheed’s three-legged stool: environment, social stability, and economic development? Please answer by stating the concerns and your party’s response to the concerns..2. What is your party’s position on the Just Transition/Sustainable Jobs Plan proposed by the federal government? Please answer by stating your concerns and your party’s response to the concerns..3. Does your party agree with the statement, “The federal government is encroaching on provincial energy legislative and regulatory territory. Why or why not?.4. Does your party support building more pipelines to export oil and gas from Alberta? Why or why not?.5. Does your party believe that Alberta needs to reach a net zero energy balance? If so, what is the timetable proposed by your party for achieving net zero, what are the potential obstacles to achieving net zero, and what are the top three policies to meet the timetable proposed? (A definition of net zero will be included with the question.)