France’s Hollande to begin state visit in Alberta for the first time

Share

France's presidents are expected to visit Montreal. Until now, they did not go to Alberta. When François Hollande arrives in Banff on Sunday, he will be going out of his way to change how his country looks at Canada, and vice-versa.

It is not just about Alberta's oil – in fact, that raises a tricky domestic political issue for Mr. Hollande, the host of next year's UN climate-change negotiations. It's also about fast-paced growth, largely driven by the resource economy: the inexorable westward shift of people, money and influence. France, long connected mainly to Quebec, sees the West as the new Canada.

"With this gesture, France really wants to show to Canada that we're conscious of the new issues and the new balance in Canada," Phillipe Zeller, France's ambassador to Canada, said in an interview. "There's a figure that strikes me: since 2012, the population of the four western provinces is greater than that of Quebec and the four Atlantic provinces.

"The movement is there. The economic data are there."

That's why Mr. Hollande is going where French presidents have never gone before. Instead of beginning his state visit in Ottawa, he will start it in Alberta.

There's little doubt Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes the symbolism, too. He is rolling out an unusually personal welcome in his home province. He will meet Mr. Hollande when he lands in Calgary, and the two will drive together to Banff – a 90-minute journey on which, according to officials, they are expected to talk about major international issues from Islamic State to Ebola – for meetings and a state dinner hosted by Governor-General David Johnston.

Mr. Harper has invited Mr. Hollande three times to see the West, most recently at the D-Day memorial in Normandy in June, Mr. Zeller said.

Now Mr. Hollande is visiting with six ministers, about 20 legislators, and about 50 business people. He will go to Alberta, but he has asked to get a glimpse of the West as a whole, and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger and Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod will meet him in Alberta, too, as part of France's efforts to send a signal across the West.

France already has extensive business connections to Canada, predominantly based in Montreal. The cultural ties to Quebec and French-Canadians go beyond the historical connection to a former colony: There is a lot of shared pop culture and media.

But the West offers new promise and new markets. There are 60 French companies in Alberta – not big, but fast-growing, Mr. Zeller said. Some are subcontractors downstream from oil-production, but there are other business interests, including technology and agriculture.

If it was only about oil, Mr. Hollande would be arriving in Alberta at an odd time. Total SA, the oil company that is France's biggest business, is cutting its investment in the oil sands. It has just shelved its $11-billion Joslyn mine indefinitely, citing high costs. Total is still there – it has a stake in Suncor Energy Inc.'s Fort Hills mine – but its enthusiasm has cooled.

Still, the visit is tricky for French politicians. Next year, Mr. Hollande has the high-profile task of hosting UN talks aimed at striking a new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a politically popular goal in France. There are questions about whether Total's oil sands interests clash with that goal, and Mr. Hollande's visit is seen as a symbol of that conflict.

Mr. Zeller insists the President is not coming to do oil diplomacy, even if he is interested in business with Canada's resource sector. "There is, however, environmental diplomacy." Canada "counts enormously" in efforts to broker a climate treaty, Mr. Zeller said, because it represents 2 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, and because Canada, and similar countries like Australia, will have to be part of a treaty consensus.

The ambassador, however, insists there is no reason to "throw a veil" over Total's business in the oil sands, and France can get a better view of what's really happening, including both the economic development and the infrastructure and environmental challenges.

One reason for trying to put the West first on this trip, Mr. Zeller said, is "to say it's time France, and French public opinion, had a more complete view of a country that, from the perspective of France, was mostly seen from the St. Lawrence River."