Article content continued

A quick note here on the prime minister’s peculiar play on words. What is a permit? Why, it is an official declaration, in writing, with the force of law, usually from an order of government, that a person or a company has legal permission to do something. It is Permission with a capital P.

Insofar as Trudeau’s statement mean anything at all, the official government permission — the one that counts — under the elastic rules of social licence really has no force at all.

But, insofar as Trudeau’s statement can be understood to mean anything at all, the official government permission — the one that counts — under the elastic rules of social licence really has no force at all. Governments “may” issue permits (permission) he says, but only communities can grant “permission.” A very odd understanding from a prime minister: that “communities” are the final authority, and that government permits function very much like tarted-up suggestion boxes.

No matter. However fugitive the meaning of social licence, the good Rachel Notley, premier of Alberta, accepted it as a concept she respected. More, she was going to “earn” it for poor Alberta’s landlocked oil. A difficult call for her — in Alberta. Let me spell out how difficult. She was willing as premier to accept the terms of the social justice-environment crusaders (against the mood of the majority of Albertans, it is fair to say) and seek to fulfill the conditions of social licence.

In return — having demonstrated all sorts of environmental good intentions, the Carbon (dioxide) Tax being the most numinous — she then expected the crusaders would relent and grant this most touted social licence. And so it came to pass that Alberta’s first NDP premier put a levy on the land, and there was much tumult even to the gnashing of teeth in Fort McMurray. The procurators of Suncor, Cenovus and ExxonMobil trembled and were full of woe. And the workers (among them the tribes of Newfoundland) said “What is this? For are we not laid off? Or waiting to be laid off? And now this Rachel is putting levies on our oil, and who can see the end of it.”