What do pipelines, wine and Rachel Notley have in common? Besides being three things that I frequently discuss, before last week, you probably wouldn’t have been able to guess.

Last week, it was announced that BC had thrown another hail mary in the fight against Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain Expansion project. Besides vocal opposition from the NDP-Green coalition and notable hostility from the Mayor of Burnaby, the BC government has filed injunctions, stating that the TransMountain Pipeline expansion is not in the best interests of their province. They claim that the pipeline defies the goals of their government, on the basis of perceived harmful environmental implications, and have pledged to stop the flow of Alberta bitumen into their province.

For obvious reasons, this action did not go over well in Alberta. To the credit of Rachel Notley, her government came out swinging against their NDP pals in British Columbia with a pledge to stop imports of BC wine. This eye-for-an-eye response continued with rumblings of Alberta halting the purchase of BC hydroelectricity. Before we get into a discussion of free-trade and the pros and cons of this action, I will say that it was better than her usual complete silence, and that I was shocked to see such action come from the Premier, to boot.

This is somewhat ironic for Alberta Conservatives as UCP Leader, Jason Kenney had suggested more harsh action than this, months ago. I recall being at one of Jason’s first Town Halls in Medicine Hat, in September of 2016, when he suggested that if BC wanted to continue to oppose our prosperity we should, quite literally, just shut off the bitumen tap going to BC. Notley, of course, responded to this by calling Mr. Kenney some names and claiming that he was overreacting — fast forward to today, oh how the tables have turned!

Kenney and the UCP caucus have been vocal in saying that Notley has failed Alberta and its workers in terms of fighting for the success of our Energy Sector. This action by the BC government was somewhat predictable as they campaigned on shifting away from fossil fuels and committed to stopping pipelines, before they were even elected. Notley continued to mislead Albertans claiming that her Carbon Tax had bought a “social license” and that all was going to be well. She was so confident in her “plan” that, during the BC election, Notley was effectively silent in her opposition to Horgan to the point that, later on, during a CBC interview it was noted by Horgan that Notley had “no intentions of persuading” him on his stance on TransMountain.

While the tumultuous battle between BC and Alberta continues to rage on, there is a relevant actor whose absence has been notable. In the fight for TransMountain, Canadians are finding themselves to be playing a game of “Where in the world is Justin Trudeau and the Federal Government?”. In a radio interview, the Prime Minister stumbled through his usual umms and uhhs to conclude that he could not “opine” on this issue and failed to offer support for Alberta as he and his government didn’t want to get in the middle of the provinces. Well, Justin, here’s a little news for you–It is, quite literally, your job to do so.

In a quote taken from the National Post, experts are saying that the Federal Government and National Energy Board have significant constitutional powers to deploy:

“(The Federal Government) could instruct the Attorney General of Canada to commence action in B.C. Supreme Court for a declaration that the proposed regulations are unconstitutional,” (Ian Blue, expert in Energy and Constitutional Law) said. “That in itself would be a huge shot across Premier Horgan’s bow.”

And, also:

“Once the regulations came into force, the Liberal government could just cut through all this delay and legal process, and under section 90 of the Constitution Act, disallow the regulations,” he said. “It has not been used since the 1940s, but it’s still a very definite power in the Constitution Act and could be used.”

While we can speculate the various unsaid reasons why the Federal Liberals do not want to get involved, what we have seen is that our “social license” and Rachel Notley’s Carbon Tax has not gotten us anywhere. If the social license scam was working like the Alberta NDP claims it to be, it goes without saying that we would not be having this fight with BC and we definitely should have the support of the Federal Government — after all, they say that without it, none of the pipelines would have been approved.

As I see it, we are lucky, in Canada, to have such an abundance of energy resources and the constitutional ability to ship them across provincial lines without tariffs or barriers. Free Trade is one of the underpinnings of our success as it allows Alberta to gain market access and the freedom to sell our products. It also provides the ability for provinces like BC to share in our success by heating their homes with Natural Gas, at an affordable rate. However, in order to gain market access we need a way to transport bitumen– we need to build that pipeline.  If this battle continues to rage on, and our Prime Minister continues to remain silent, we are nowhere near the end of this war or even close to the worst case scenario.

With a recent announcement of changes to the federal regulatory process (read: more government burden and overreach) we have every right to be concerned about our future. It is up to us to continue to advocate for our energy sector and stand up for Alberta and Canada’s best interests. Please consider signing this petition from our friends at Canada Action as your personal commitment http://www.canadaaction.ca/respect_the_rule_of_law.