As I wrote in my previous blogpost, when it comes to the very idea of “affordable energy,” Rachel Notley’s record as NDP Premier was abysmal. Notley and her socialist team, like socialists everywhere, are openly hostile to the need to have affordable energy for consumers. This is evident by her willingness to thrust a Carbon Tax on Alberta before Trudeau’s “green-obsessed” Liberals came on the scene.

As for the issue of building more Canadian pipelines – our greatest hope to help ensure a supply of affordable energy in this country, Notley’s NDP was effectively useless while Trudeau shut down Canadian pipelines. Notley, as premier, showed her true colours. Let me explain.

Perhaps one of Justin Trudeau’s greatest and most devastating blows to the energy industry was Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, a bill that was dubbed the “no more pipelines” bill by many in the industry. 

Bill C-69 was designed to ensure major construction projects had a “social license” to operate. I will explain what this Orwellian /World Economic Forum inspired term means in a future blogpost. In brief, it was basically a new “green” requirement for public consultations to include considerations such as climate change, gender, and other issues.  

Bill C-69 was first introduced in 2018, while Rachel Notley and the NDP were still in power, and it is now law. Just how bad was, and is, Bill C-69?  In effect, this new law makes pipeline approvals and construction in Canada so burdensome and costly, pipelines aren’t being built because the approvals process is long, volatile, and risky. This is a huge deterrent for investors and companies who need predictable approval timelines. 

And without pipelines Canadian energy is effectively landlocked and not able to get to markets. Without pipelines Canada loses out on supplying Canadian oil to the world, costing our economy billions in revenue every year. 

Where was Notley and her government while Bill C-69 was being debated? Certainly not in Ottawa standing up to Trudeau and advocating for Alberta’s future! 

As reported by Licia Corbella in the Calgary Herald at the time, “from March 22 to May 22 of that year [2019],  the environment committee held 14 meetings in Ottawa….The committee had 150 briefs submitted and 117 witnesses appeared. Even though Alberta has the most to lose from this bill, no one from the Alberta government bothered to testify. Not even a brief was submitted before the committee.” 

Notley and her NDP government made not one appearance before a committee studying a Bill that would have devastating impacts on the greatest economic driver and job creator of the province she was purported to represent. 

While the Notley government made some token statements in opposition to the Bill and even submitted some technical briefings, her opposition was completely ineffective and, in my view, totally insincere. Notley did not stand up to Trudeau and he pushed forward Bill C-69 into law. Basically, Notley, an opponent of the affordable energy that results from pipelines, had a secret agenda to support Bill C-69, but pretended to “have concerns” with it as her party was getting ready for her re-election campaign, a campaign which, thankfully, she lost in the spring of 2019.

Let’s hope her fate in 2023 is the same. Another NDP government will spell disaster for the future of Alberta’s economy. When heading to the polls Albertans should remember that a vote for Notley is a vote for unaffordable energy.