Has the Alberta NDP gone commercial? It has little choice

Share

Many of us had a favourite band of our youth – a scrappy, independent act that appealed to our rebellious nature.

We attended their gigs in small venues and relished their relative obscurity until that fateful day when they were discovered by a major record label and hit the big time. To our despair, they had to appeal to a much wider audience. They "went commercial."

Undoubtedly, some long-time supporters of the Alberta NDP must be starting to have similar pangs now that the party of Premier Rachel Notley is presiding over a $43-billion economy that rises, and lately falls, with the oil industry.

Recent comments by ministers sound quite unlike the opposition New Democrats of old who fired off zingers on social and environmental controversies, from insufficient monitoring of oil sands operations to government being a sales force for the energy sector.

Last month, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips and Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd visited the site of that huge oil spill at Nexen Energy's Long Lake oil sands operation south of Fort McMurray and played it safe in front of the cameras.

Executives with the Chinese-controlled company said the mixture of bitumen, sand and water could have been leaking from the relatively new conduit for as long as two weeks before it was discovered, the high-tech detection equipment having apparently failed.

The ministers did not call for the heads of company officials and regulators, though. They said that the situation was "unacceptable" and "troubling," but were emphatic that they had confidence in the Alberta Energy Regulator's ability to go about its investigation.

They also said that, despite the incident, pipelines remain the safest way to transport oil and gas.

Indeed, Ms. McCuaig-Boyd told me recently that the NDP will advocate on behalf of the energy sector to "help create the climate that's going to make it easier for pipelines to get built."

There may be differences in degrees of enthusiasm with which the new government goes about touting market access for the industry, but let's face it, such a statement could easily have been made by a minister in any one of the previous Progressive Conservative governments.

Has the Alberta NDP gone commercial? The fact is, it has no choice, at least where the energy sector is concerned.

The province's economy is under severe pressure thanks to oil, which threatens to slump below $43 (U.S.) a barrel, raising the spectre of another round of energy sector job cuts. It's profoundly negative for other sectors, too, from real estate to construction.

Some investors, and most recently, federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, have complained that the NDP's priorities now going into force – the review of energy royalties and higher corporate taxes and carbon levies – have hastened the downturn.

That's debatable, but the government can't afford to do anything but craft its messaging to show it is supportive of the province's biggest industry. It's promised the energy sector "no surprises" as its review panel, led by banker Dave Mowat, puts royalties under the microscope with no end to oil's slide in sight. The idea, as the energy sector has suggested, is to consider all costs that companies face at once.

The NDP is due to table its first budget in the fall, and if anything, the revenue picture looks darker than it did in March when the PCs under Jim Prentice projected a $5-billion (Canadian) deficit. There will be little opportunity to spin it into a positive economic tale for anyone.

There's another force taming the NDP's commentary as well. Canadian political parties invariably gravitate toward the centre once they get into office.

Case in point: It would have been inconceivable to early supporters of the Reform Party that the successor Conservatives under Mr. Harper would have tabled several deficit budgets, increased public debt and stimulated the economy with public spending during downturns, but they did.

The Alberta NDP may be coming at it from the other direction, but tough times call for an appeal for more unity across the spectrum, even if the long-time supporters want a grittier sound.