Edmonton Opinion

Did Notley snub feds, or did they snub her?

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$1.6B aid package for energy industry wasn't what Alberta had asked for

Concerned oilpatch workers watch Tuesday as International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr, Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault speak during a news conference in Edmonton. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)

Who snubbed who?

In the junior high school that is Canadian politics, the question arose this week over the federal government's $1.6-billion aid package for the energy industry.

Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr made the announcement Tuesday morning at the NAIT campus in Edmonton.

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Conspicuous by their absence was anybody from the Alberta government.

It appeared the Notley government had snubbed the federal government.

But why?

The mystery deepens when you consider that the day before, Notley had conducted eight back-to-back year-end interviews with journalists where she again made her plea to Ottawa for assistance.

"We could certainly use some help from the federal government with respect to minimizing any job losses in the short term," said Notley. "We've asked them to look at continuing the program that we started with respect to orphan-well reclamation to keep some of these service companies working in the short term."

A snub that went both ways

After saying that, she doesn't show up when Ottawa announces help?

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It appeared she had snubbed the federal government.

But it turns out Notley had no idea the announcement was coming. Her officials say the premier only found out when word leaked to the news media just hours beforehand.

So, the federal government snubbed her?

Well, it's both.

The federal ministers didn't invite Notley because they knew she wouldn't come. They snubbed her because she would have snubbed them.

Not what Notley wanted

The aid package wasn't what Notley had asked for.

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She wanted money for job creation in the oilpatch and to help buy 7,000 rail cars to ship Alberta bitumen to the West Coast for transport to Asia.

Instead, Ottawa announced "commercial financial support" worth $1 billion from Export Development Canada and $500 million in financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada. There's also $100 million available through Economic Development Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund.

No money for job creation or rail cars.

And what money is coming is in the form of loans.

"Offering Alberta business owners and industry the opportunity to go further in debt is not any kind of long-term solution," said Notley, holding her own news conference in Calgary, keeping well clear of the federal announcement in Edmonton.

"Especially not when we are a province and we are talking about an industry that is very good at being profitable if given the freedom to do so."

There's speculation Ottawa might yet kick in more money for Notley's wish list but these days the federal Liberals are so deeply disliked in Alberta that Notley would be reluctant to share a stage with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even if he arrived riding a bulldozer, ready to build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Pro-pipeline (or anti-federal government) rallies in Alberta seem to be gaining strength, from the 1,500-person rally in Grande Prairie last Sunday to the 22-kilometre-long truck convoy protest in Nisku on Wednesday.

While Notley is trying to escape links to the federal Liberals, United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney is happy to drag her back into the fray, chronically calling her Trudeau's friend and ally.

"Alberta's NDP government made a critical mistake in putting all their faith in their alliance with the Trudeau Liberal government, and today Albertans are facing the consequences," said Kenney this week.

Speculation about an election

Playing in the background to all this is speculation about when Notley will call an election.

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She has suggested the call might come as early as February, but the timing will in part depend on any good news for her on the pipeline/fiscal front and any bad news for Kenney on pretty much any front.

To help generate bad news, the NDP is getting involved.

NDP MLA Graham Sucha, for example, filed a complaint with Calgary police to investigate allegations of fraud at the UCP's November nomination vote in Calgary East.

Then there's "kamikaze-gate," with allegations that UCP insiders interfered in the party's 2017 leadership race where candidate Jeff Callaway supposedly ran a suicidal campaign to surreptitiously help Kenney defeat Brian Jean.

Callaway has denied the allegations but some disgruntled UCP members are calling for an investigation into the leadership race by the courts or by Elections Alberta.

If these complaints do indeed generate investigations, you'd have to think Notley would be less inclined to call an early election and instead give time for the probes to dig up possible bad news for the UCP and give her a bit more time to find good news on the fiscal front.