The premiers of sa国际传媒 and Alberta have worked out an agreement on pipeline projects, but it seems to be short on substance.
sa国际传媒 Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford had a meeting scheduled in Vancouver on Tuesday, which was cancelled, suggesting they were at loggerheads again over the pipeline issue. But suddenly, late in the morning, they held a news conference to announce that their officials 鈥渨orked through the night鈥� to come up with a framework.
鈥淔ramework鈥� is one of those words that suggests a lot of labour still lies ahead. It鈥檚 not a real deal, but more like a means of reaching a deal.
The statement from the two governments was unusual in that it described the agreement, but didn鈥檛 include a copy of the wording. It was reminiscent of Prime Minister Stephen Harper鈥檚 announcement of the trade deal with the European Union, the text of which has still not been completed.
However, the statement does touch on the main points. sa国际传媒 will back Redford鈥檚 Canadian Energy Strategy, which is geared mainly to getting Alberta鈥檚 oil to market and cleaning up the negative publicity about the oilsands.
Alberta, on the other hand, agreed to sa国际传媒鈥檚 famous five conditions: world-class marine and land safety, environmental approvals, First Nations buy-in and a fair share of the financial benefits. Clark also agreed that sa国际传媒鈥檚 fair share would not come out of Alberta oil revenues.
The announcement didn鈥檛 do anything to change minds on the Enbridge Northern Gateway or Kinder Morgan proposals. The premiers had already signalled they were on the same page when it came to economic development and their desire to move energy to lucrative foreign markets.
For both proponents and opponents of pipelines, the framework doesn鈥檛 get the companies any closer to pumping oil to Kitimat or Vancouver.
Supporting Alberta鈥檚 energy strategy costs sa国际传媒 nothing. There is enough wiggle room in the five conditions to allow Clark to say either yes or no to a project. And Clark had already said she wouldn鈥檛 try to pick Redford鈥檚 pocket of royalty revenue.
Much of the decision-making is out of the hands of the provincial government, anyway. The National Energy Board will decide whether or not to approve the pipeline. sa国际传媒 could have had the right to judge the process, but signed it away in 2010.
The many First Nations along the proposed routes are concerned about the impact. Getting their OK will not be easy.
This agreement 鈥� what we know of it 鈥� is only a small step on a long road.
