Notley takes credit where credit isn’t really due

Politics, like life, is rarely fair.

Just look at Premier Rachel Notley’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday at an economic diversification project in Edmonton.

She was celebrating the grand opening of a newly expanded facility run by a firm called Ceapro Inc. that takes Canada-grown oats and extracts ingredients that are used to make cosmetics.

“This is exactly the type of economic diversification we want for our province,” said a beaming Notley. The expansion will see the company grow from 30 employees to 60.

Notley happily took credit, patting her herself on the back for helping Ceapro blossom thanks to funding from a government agency, Canada Innovates (formerly the Canada Research Council).

“Our government is very, very proud of the supports that we offer businesses to help them succeed here,” said Notley. “In the case of Ceapro, this included (research and development) support, including a $1.6-million grant from Canada Innovates Biosolutions.”

And here’s where life and politics is unfair.

That $1.6 million didn’t come from the NDP government but from the old Progressive Conservative government in 2011. The NDP did provide a top-up of $800,000 in 2015 but the original grant, indeed the entire “Biosolutions” program to help diversity Canada’s economy, is thanks to Ed Stelmach.

Not that anybody at Wednesday’s photo-op so much as whispered his name.

So, let me be the first, and probably only, person to say thank you to former premier Stelmach.

But c’est la politique

As one government official pointed out, Notley gets blamed unfairly for so many of the failed legacies of the PCs that her government will gladly take credit for some of the successes.

No matter how small.

And when taken in context to the thousands of jobs lost in the energy industry, the expansion at Ceapro is tiny.

But there was a glimmer of hope Wednesday for the Notley government on another, larger, front.

The federal government has given conditional approval for the multi-billion dollar Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia.

Notley says if the mega-project goes ahead, it will benefit Canada’s energy producers and contractors. But more to the point, she says it demonstrates the federal Liberals are willing to approve energy projects – hello, pipelines – despite strenuous objections from environmental groups.

“We’re encouraged that the federal government appears to be rolling up its sleeves to try and sort of navigate a path towards … an important combination of sustainable economic growth while ensuring that you address environmental issues,” she said.

Officials said she is also taking heart from news that some of the federal government’s conditions include the government of Premier Christy Clark putting a cap on emissions from the project as well as increasing the price of the province’s carbon tax.

Notley is hoping that means the Liberals will be looking kindly on Canada’s plans to curb emissions through the introduction of a carbon tax in 2017 as well as implementing a cap on emissions from the oil sands.

We shall see.

There are rumblings from the federal government that it might approve, with conditions, the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline.

Prime Minister Trudeau reportedly wants to show investors his government, and the country, can find a way to approve major energy projects without environmental opponents blocking progress every step of the way, both figuratively and literally.

The Liberals apparently want to do this before the next federal election tentatively set for October of 2019.

Considering that Canada’s next provincial election is set for the spring of 2019, Notley would like to see something happen sooner than later.

A conditional approval wouldn’t create any jobs – not even 30 as were announced at the oat-crushing Ceapro plant on Wednesday – but, boy, what a difference it would make politically for the NDP.

It would be a major coup for Notley, especially if she could point to her climate-change policies as the reason for the federal government giving the green light.

In that case, Notley could rightly take the credit.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter: Graham_Journal