I’ve lived in Alberta all my life. I’ve seen the worries and frustrations many Albertans feel that has led some people to support ‘Wexit’, the idea of separating from Canada. I’m just as opposed to the idea of Alberta separating as I am to the idea of Quebec separating. Losing either province would be like losing a piece of myself. When I see the the acrimony, I wonder how we as Canadians can find some kind of common ground.

And there is acrimony. Many of the issues surrounding oil and gas development, ranging from the changes of Bill C-69 to the opposition of many environmentalists, Indigenous people and provinces such as Quebec to pipelines are seen by a lot of Albertans as just the latest in a long line of actions by Ottawa and the rest of Canada that left Alberta holding the bag. Former MP Monte Solberg gives a lot of examples that frustrated Albertans cite. There’s a view that we’re expected to continue paying into programs such as equalization and Employment Insurance, while being demonized for developing the resources that actually get that money.

Solberg talks a lot about Alberta’s conservatism, as if that were the only political view that exists here. And as as Jen Gerson observes, the loudest advocates of Wexit seem to be conservative oil and gas workers. But Gerson also notes they’re not the only frustrated ones. There’s a feeling that, because we have some racist assholes here and are generally the most conservative province in Canada, other Canadians see us as bad people who deserve all the bad things that happen to us.

Gerson notes that it’s easy for Albertans to feel like we’ve been singled out as scapegoats for all of Canada’s environmental issues…even though the rest of the country sure likes the money the oilsands produces. Never mind that the Alberta oil and gas sector is working hard to reduce its emissions. It also doesn’t help that some American environmentalists have openly admitted to targeted the oilsands, as pipeline advocates have claimed.

Now, with unemployment rates for men under 25 reaching 20% in Alberta, and Quebec Premier François Legault referring to Alberta oil as ‘dirty energy’,it’s no wonder that so many Albertans feel like we’re being crapped on and being attacked as ‘blue-eyed sheiks’ despite all the contributions we’ve made to support the rest of the country. As one Calgary Herald editorial wrote in 2001, “Albertans wouldn’t begrudge the financial imbalance; helping one’s neighbour is a value that thrives in the West. It’s just that a little appreciation is overdue.”[1]

I’m personally very proud that Alberta’s supported the rest of the country through equalization payments and the money that workers from other provinces send home. As Stephen Maher points out, equalization has been a reciprocal thing. Alberta sent money to the rest of the country, allowing provinces like Quebec and Nova Scotia to pay for their residents’ health and education needs. In return, Alberta got human capital in the form of those provinces’ residents coming out here to find work in the oilsands. Maher noted that other provinces spend money to educate their youth, see many of them work and pay taxes in Alberta, then require the provinces to spend on their healthcare when they come back to retire.

As proud as I am of what Alberta’s achieved and how we’ve helped the rest of the country, there are some things that make me shake my head. I facepalm at the arrogance some of us showed during the booms, especially when we rubbed our good fortune in other Canadians’ faces. Snide comments about how everybody having hard times should just move to Alberta haven’t exactly won us a lot of sympathy when we‘re the ones on hard times’.

A lot of of us also seem to believe that equalization directly transfers provincial money from Alberta to other provinces, which it doesn’t. Andrew Leach shows how it’s based on each province’s fiscal capacity. Trevor Tombe showed how our GDP has been one of Canada’s highest for decades even with our current problems. Jocelyn Maclure shows how provinces like Quebec receive equalization payments-which come from federal money-because their fiscal capacity is lower than Alberta’s. Equalization allows the provinces to better set their own priorities on taxes and spending. Quebec pays for its more generous social programs through higher taxes, while Alberta’s paid for its programs through oil royalties. Notably, Quebec also imports 40% of its natural gas and 47.6% of its oil from Alberta.

We caused some of our own problems with our own fiscal choices. Bumper stickers promising God not to piss away the next oil boom are a common anecdote in Alberta. Unfortunately, we’ve paid a lot of our day to day expenses with oil revenues to keep income taxes low. Even our conservative governments have historically been big spenders in good times,[2] which didn’t leave us a lot in our Heritage Fund for rainy days like today. It doesn’t help that the boom times aren’t expected to come back anytime soon.

Not to mention that a lot of the opposition to pipelines in other parts of Canada is motivated by concerns about everything from climate change to the impacts of spillage on the environment, drinking water and other ways people earn their livelihoods, notably Indigenous ones. When it came to resource development, Dene leader Don Balsillie quipped to federal officials, ‘you got the gold, we got the shaft’.[3]

I’m struggling about where to go from here. I see so many valid points on both sides, and a lot of people worried about their families’ livelihoods and futures. Many Albertans feel the Liberals’ legislation changes and opposition to pipelines are just another example of how the rest of the country doesn’t care about us. Meanwhile, pipeline opponents like many Québécois and Indigenous people feel like Alberta’s push for pipelines is just another example of how the environment and other peoples’ livelihoods (e.g. if they work in farming or tourism, or rely on traditional hunting and fishing) are expected to be sacrificed for oil and gas development.

I hear a lot about phasing out oil and gas and moving to other forms of energy. I have a lot of questions about it, though. Where do we get the tax revenues for investing in green energy? How do we heat our homes and transport people, especially to outlying communities or islands? Why is it alright for some place like Venezuela to sell oil but not Canada? Martha Hall Findlay notes that we can’t avoid this conversation. Other energy sources have had their problems too, such as the Quebec hydroelectric dams that severely disrupted Cree hunting and fishing activities.[4] What kinds of issues are there with wind and solar power, among others? Wouldn’t we still need to mine the materials needed to make solar panels and windmills?

Ideas exist, of course. Will Dubitsky, Geoff Dembicki and Shelley Wilson all suggest that Alberta’s infrastructure and its workers technical know-how could transfer to the green energy sector. Regan Boychuk and Avi Lewis suggest that Alberta could create decades of work through cleaning up the impact of oil and gas development.

One idea that I’m completely and totally against as an Albertan, though, is the idea of Alberta or Western Canada separating from Canada. Cory Morgan points out that separation raises way too many unanswered questions. Doug Cuthand notes that separation would have to reckon with the the First Nations Treaties covering Alberta and the rights of Indigenous people. Chantal Hébert talked about all the problems that Quebec separatists have had trying to separate. And no, separation would not make it any easier to get pipelines built.

Separation would be nothing short of a disaster for Alberta. More than that, it would mean we-all of us, not just Albertans-will have failed at building a stronger relationship as a country.

Things are bad in Alberta, but there are a few encouraging signs. Sharon J. Riley writes about the former oil and gas workers who’re working in the solar industry. Chris Varcoe writes about the workers who’re working in agribusiness, and how a lot of the skills they developed in the oilpatch are transferable. Quebec’s Finance Minister Éric Girard writes about how la belle province wants Alberta to prosper, and supports Alberta’s proposed changes to the federal fiscal stabilization program. Heather Scoffield writes about the politicians and activists who are trying to get around the seeming polarization on pipelines.

I see so many people worried for so many reasons. I see fellow Albertans who are deeply frustrated and unhappy, but don’t want to separate. I see possible solutions and areas of common ground. I wish I could find that common ground, and I almost hate myself for not being able to.

I wish there was more that I could do, and I wish I knew what to do.

[1] Quoted in Roger Gibbins and Loleen Berdahl, Western Visions, Western Futures: Perspectives On The West In Canada. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2003. Page 61.

[2] Ibid, page 106.

[3] Quoted in Ellen Bielawski, Rogue Diamonds: The Rush For Northern Riches On Dene Land. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2003. Page 61.

[4] Harvey A. Feit, “Hunting And The Quest For Power: The James Bay Cree And Whitemen In The Twentieth Century.” In Native Peoples, The Canadian Experience, edited by R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pages 181–223.

   

Pretty sure that there will be no change in the overall meta. Not when lack of respect is at the core of the entire problem. They hate O&G but do SFA to help let other industries develop in the West to replace that which they want to abolish. There was never any will to let, for example, the sort of heavy industry develop in Alberta that the central provinces benefited from for decades. Not even when parts of Ontario and Quebec were stricken with the same problems that afflicted the American Rust Belt states. A solution for Bombardier's corruption and incompetence, for example, might have been "hey, why don't we manufacture jet aircraft for the commercial market outside of Quebec?", just to see what happens in terms of efficiency and maybe the Canadian taxpayer wouldn't have been on the hook endlessly to prop up a terribly managed company like Bombardier that will NEVER get it's shit together. It's already happened with marijuana, in that Alberta is the only province so far to roll out both a growing sector and sales sector that aren't strangled by regulatory red tape. Think they'll copy our success with it in their own provinces, by giving the new industry the room to breathe and grow? Nah, more like they'll go whining to the feds to subject Alberta bud to higher taxation in order to make it a new stream of transfer money to the central government. That's how they think. They won't increase their own efficiencies, they'll just look to loot from someone else who got their act together. And they'll apply that way of thinking to any successful sector that springs up outside of the central provinces. That's the way Trudeau Utopians always do things and always will.

It's all water under the bridge though. The seeds of this situation were planted as far back as Confederation, when the central provinces were literally deemed as the only part of Canada that really matters. No one else, except maybe for that clutch of dependably-left hipsters in Vancouver, will ever be seen as an equal to the firmly established power structure. So the options remain the same as they've always been. One, stay and accept a second-class status that's determined merely by the part of the country you reside in. Or, two, leave and damn all the consequences that come with it.

It's not going to change, ever. They're convinced they've created perfection and why in the world should their sainted perfection ever be revised or updated.

   

What if Ottawa was to pump money into Alberta and the rest of the Prairies for that kind of industry, though? Would it help if there was a large fund available to put O&G workers to work capping and reclaiming abandoned wells, or to develop the green energy industry here? That's what some of the sources I cited talk about.

After all, if it's good enough for Quebec, it should be good enough for us too.

   

I read an article about the potential of lithium refining in Alberta in the Calgary Herald last week. It gave me some pause for thought if EVs are going to become more commonplace.

   

I think the issue is Ottawa is quick to bail out Bombardier or SNC; but the province that has allowed Canada to be a "G" nation sees nothing. O&G is shunned and we're expected to fend for ourselves, I think many are starting to think, "well why not just go it ourselves".

This WEXIT mentality would evaporate fairly fast if Ottawa would just pay attention and help Canadians from provinces not named Ontario or Quebec.

Until they do, we'll continue to clamour for attention anyway we can-- including threatening to separate.

   

I don't think that you are going to be able to count on Ottawa to save the day for you. Lets be honest here, they have a long list of special interest that they have to answer to, and you are at the very bottom of that list. Numerous locals outside of Canada come before you on that list. I am afraid that you are going to have to save yourselves here. I am not talking separation, that is not the answer. I am talking about attracting new businesses to Alberta. You need a marketing campaign to show that Alberta has one of the best work forces in North America. Excuse my language here, but you cannot be a pussy and work in the patch. Its that simple. The weather is extreme. Candyasses need not apply. Many people working in the patch endure long separations from their families. They work hard long hours in extreme conditions to get the job done. Very few locations in North America can compete with the gritty, stubborn, determination of the workforce of Alberta. That is a fact! Most of us in North America are spoiled. We want to do eight and skate. We have bass to catch. We have beer to drink and games to watch. We don't want to be away from our families. We don't want to freeze our asses off in extreme weather conditions. Most of us in North America would not last a week in the patch. Thats the cold hard truth!

You have the work force. You have excellent universities with some of the best engineering programs in North America. You have smart people. Now throw in some massive tax breaks for corporations to set up shop in Alberta. How about zero provincial taxes for 20 years? 30 years? Why can't Alberta build automobiles? Why can't Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai build cars in Alberta? If renewable energy is the next big thing, than why can't it be built in Alberta? It is expensive as hell to do business in Ontario. Right now without doing anything at all it is much cheaper to set up shop in Alberta than Ontario. Go the extra mile. Make it much, much, much cheaper to set up shop in Alberta for every business.

Instead of looking to Ontario as your saviour, look at them as your enemy. That is how they see you. Return the favor in spades. Start stealing as much business from them as possible. Have a 30 year tax holiday for international companies setting up shop in Alberta. A 50 year tax holiday for Canadian corporations, and a lifetime tax holiday for Ontario based corporations moving to Alberta. You have a workforce that is more rugged and dependable than most countries militaries. You have land. You have resources. You have good schools and smart people. Put it all together baby! Quit wasting time with this leaving Canada bullshit talk. Its bullshit, and a waste of time. It gets you nowhere.

Get off of your knees! Stop asking others to throw you a lifeline and save you. Save yourselves! Start acting more like the ballsy pioneers who risked everything they had moving out west in a wagon train.No one gave them shit. That is the mentality that made the west great. Self reliance. Get back to it! Stop asking and start taking. Start taking what is rightfully yours! You have everything that you need to succeed. You do not need Ottawa's help, and you should not take it. It comes with way too many stings attached. Save yourselves!

   

I don’t see tax breaks as the solution.

   

Alberta: America's 51st State.

   

You clearly need a vacation.

I suggest that you take a road trip this summer and drive across the entire country.

   

I sure as hell hope not.

   

Talk about a bloody nightmare, Alberta would have even less representation in the US federal government and almost certainly less support for provincial programs.

   

Well said. WHY do we continue to send oil to be refined elsewhere?

   

It was not a sentence I was prepared to read. Not even in the central Canadian press.

The sentence was this: Canada is preparing an aid package for Alberta.

Let me detail how wrong this is, and outrageous.

Where did this “Canada” come from? The Liberal government is not Canada. And everyone in Canada except, perhaps, the Liberal government, knows this.


https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-mu ... separation