The Alberta government is taking a page from the playbook of former premier Peter Lougheed by threatening to cut oil exports in its fight against B.C.'s efforts to stop the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
In Thursday's throne speech, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley threatened to "invoke similar legislation" if B.C. takes "extreme and illegal actions" to stop the $7.4-billion project.
Notley suggested in a news conference earlier in the day that the province is particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in supply.
"There is no question that the lower mainland of B.C. in particular struggles from rather high gas prices and that they have a very high sensitivity to supply changes," she said.
Notley said some British Columbians who are concerned about the environment seem not to understand that decisions that affect the economy don't just hurt Albertans, but have impacts across this country.
In 1980, Lougheed fought Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's national energy program by passing a regulation to restrict the amount of oil and gas leaving Alberta.
The government also stopped issuing permits for natural gas exports.
Notley has been pushing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lean harder on B.C. so it will stop delaying the project that would nearly triple the pipeline's capacity to 890,000 barrels a day. But the B.C. government created uncertainty in late January when it proposed limits on shipments of diluted bitumen while it further studied the risk of oil spills on the Pacific coast.
In retaliation, Notley announced Alberta would boycott all B.C. wines, arguing B.C. Premier John Horgan's government was violating the Constitution.
The boycott was suspended after Horgan retreated on the threat, deciding instead to put the constitutional question to the courts.
Horgan is ever mindful of the three Green Party MLAs who hold the balance of power in the B.C. legislature. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver has vowed the expansion will never be built.
Rural crime
The throne speech also outlined a number of bills and initiatives the government intends to introduce over the next three months.
Alberta plans to focus on solving the problem of rural crime, which was a key issue for the Official Opposition United Conservative Party during the fall session.
The majority of MLAs in the UCP caucus represent rural areas.
The government says it is working with the RCMP to develop new strategies, including new bait vehicles with GPS, so police can catch car, truck and farm equipment thieves. Ways to reduce the amount of time officers spend on paperwork, so they can spend more time on patrol, are also being explored.
Proposed legislation coming this spring includes:
- An act to diversify the energy industry. The government will give grants and loan guarantees to companies to build partial upgrading plants in Alberta. It is also planning on rolling out the second phase of a program to build more petrochemical plants.
- An act creating spaces to train thousands of new post-secondary students in technology.
- Proposed legislation to move Alberta away from the deregulated electricity market. That was announced last year.
- A bill to reform Alberta's lobbying legislation. The issue was studied last year by the legislature's standing committee on resource stewardship with input from the province's ethics commissioner.
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