PINDER: Mark Carney claims he'll ‘Build Canada’ — but his climate conditions could break Alberta

While there has been little impact on the planet, the United Nations (UN) Earth Summit in 1992 has dramatically impacted the world — carbon dioxide demonized, emission reductions favoured over economic growth, subsidies by Western governments and eroded balance sheets, and individual freedom lost to officious rules. The increasingly desperate desire of the UN to unilaterally expand its role towards global governance rules is obvious. The “climate crisis” is its chosen pathway to more power.The sobering but never mentioned fact is that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are near historic lows, only one-fifth or one-tenth the levels 500 and 600 million years ago, respectively. Preindustrial year levels were 300 ppm; a hundred years ago, they approached the extinction level of 180 ppm. No one knows, and we don’t want to, the exact level at which plants die, animals and fish cannot exist, and human life ends.Wouldn’t it be ironic if, as it appears, the small impact by humans on CO2 levels (this includes burning fossil fuels, humans breathing, and cows flatulating) may have prevented further fatal decline (this is conjecture). We should celebrate the average annual increase of 2 ppm in the last hundred years to the current level of 430 ppm, avoiding the ultimate damage to the planet. The low levels reveal the false narrative of the 1992 Earth Summit zealots’ scaremongering, also revealing the real risk of low levels. The persistent and tiring tactics of Secretary General Guterres warn that humans are “burning up the planet,” which is “on fire.” He knows that in the past temperatures saw tropical verdancy and alligators in the Arctic. How did the planet ever survive?.But this dishonest and highly misleading narrative gained legs; our Prime Minister is one of the leaders of this damaging deception.All this begs the question of why emission reductions are needed, and further, why Canada needs to be at the forefront? Canada runs at only about 1.5% of total global emissions, hardly relevant to the purported problem. There was no mandate asked or given to governments — federal, provincial, or municipal — to make Canada the global leader in emission reductions.Initiated by the Trudeau federal government in 2015 when it withdrew Northern Gateway after a ten-year regulatory process, the onslaught of the energy sector began. With the guidance of his university buddy Gerald Butts, Energy East, and the Trans Mountain fiasco, capital investment is avoiding our country, with the knowledge that pipelines are only the visible head of the climate crisis dragon.We are now saddled with one of the world’s “climate crisis” leaders, Mark Carney, who, through much of this period, was a personal advisor to the Liberal Party. BTW, his wife, Diana Fox Carney, works with Gerald Butts at the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory agency..It is deeply concerning that the provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, also buy into the narrative and are making expensive and damaging policies as a result of the narrative. Credit to Scott Moe, who announced Saskatchewan will continue its coal-fired electrical generation plant (near Estevan) for its full life cycle, even after the feds mandated an earlier closure date. This and his comments, “come and get me,” are an early indication of Western defiance. The current proposed pipeline to the Pacific is subject to the Carney conditions of sharply higher carbon costs in Alberta, and the decarbonization of oil (an expensive and open-ended risk to the economics of this major project). As the industry is unlikely to capitalize on a low-return pipeline, the risk is that Alberta and/or the Canadian governments will bear the cost of this process, spending other people's money to support a false narrative.Why should Canadians fund the bias, ego, and ambition of the Prime Minister who is treating Canada as his climate playground? Has any customer ever made decarbonized oil a condition for purchasing Canadian oil? Is it a condition for imported oil to central Canada? Why not?Carney has so far avoided the conflict between his long-held beliefs and global activities in his new role. He is now campaigning on “build Canada” with policies that make our most important industry less competitive. These pages have on many occasions warned about his personal conflict.The big risk here is that Premier Smith, understandably anxious to see a pipeline to the Pacific, and by extension perhaps save Canada from Alberta independence, will acquiesce to these unrealistic and ultimately uneconomic conditions. The potential for a further burden on both Alberta and Canadian taxpayers should first be determined by a clear mandate, whether to continue the problematic need for Canada to be the global emissions leader by way of subsidies, so Carney can impress his peers at the UN, EU, and WEF..We already know the Prime Minister is one of the world’s leading protagonists supporting the UN and global governance rules, especially with respect to fossil fuels. Let's remember the comments in his book (very similar to those articulated by UN Agenda 21) to reorder society and seek a “broader purpose” that aligns with his values (versus market values), rather than “short-term profits.”This reveals a lack of understanding of capital, surprising for a former Governor of the Banks of Canada and England, and having, in his words, “saved two economies.” The long-term capital investment profiles of the oil sands require years of planning, construction, and matching technology to the resource. Revenues and potential profitability come later and are fraught with risk, as the “Lost Decade” has demonstrated. Investment capital depends upon expectations of favourable market prices and trust in the regulatory environment. Sadly, our Prime Minister does not understand the need to build trust — it is troubling and revealing that Canada’s largest energy company, Canadian Natural Resources, founded and run by Murray Edwards from Saskatchewan (and a lifetime federal Liberal), announced a hold on its more than $8 billion capital program until there is “regulatory certainty.” .Anyone who knows Murray understands this also means profitability.If there is any such thing as clean oil, and if so, it ranks well down the customer priority list, which features access, affordability, and security of supply. Carney and Trudeau’s vision of the future, never presented to Canadians in a forthright manner, almost ensures that promises “to build Canada” are illusory and built on sand — or is it oil sands?This must be difficult for the ever-superior socialist Carney, who has boasted he “understands these things better than others.” Let’s hope Danielle Smith is willing to see through the narrative and stand her ground on behalf of Albertans and the industry.A final salient question — Canada is a large geography with mostly uninhabitable permafrost and frozen tundra. What natural dynamic could be more positive for our country than continual mild warming?

PINDER: Mark Carney claims he'll ‘Build Canada’ — but his climate conditions could break Alberta

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