[Dion]

GUNTER: NDP civil war between Notley and Singh a minor skirmish

On Tuesday, oil analysts Wood Mackenzie Ltd. reported that international energy firms are poised to invest nearly $300 billion in new projects around the world over the next three years, but very little of that in Canada.

That’s not Singh’s doing. He has no power over policy, regulations or taxes yet. The unattractiveness of Canada to energy investors is the direct result of the anti-oil climate created by the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa and the New Democrats in Alberta and B.C.

Now it’s our turn to laugh at Notley’s contention that somehow her policies – such as “social licence” – have been good for the jobs of ordinary Albertans.

Ask all the oil-field and coal-plant workers who’ve been laid off since she took over.

Of course, when Notley was in opposition and no one, including her, imagined she would ever be premier, she was like Singh. She routinely called for greater environmental regulations and limits on the growth of our oil and gas sector, particularly the oilsands.

In a speech in Peace River in 2011, Notley even insisted that “sometimes public interest is better served by limiting the profitability of that business,” by which she meant the energy industry.

In 2008, one of Notley’s then constituency workers, Denise Ogonoski, repelled from the roof of Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre during a Tory fundraiser unfurling a “Stop the Tar Sands” banner. Also in 2008, Notley told the newspaper Fort McMurray Today “The NDP wants what most Albertans want: for the Tories to stop issuing new tar sands development leases until environmental health and economic assessments of the region are completed.”

Yes, Notley has been a vocal supporter of the Trans Mountain pipeline – recently. But she opposed Northern Gateway and has been lukewarm, at best, to Keystone XL. It’s hard to shake the impression her current Trans Mountain support is anything more than political butt-saving.

https://edmontonsun.com/opinion/colu...minor-skirmish