When solving a mystery, detectives often rely on the physical evidence they find at the scene. One of the most powerful pieces of evidence that can be brought forward is the fingerprints left behind by the perpetrators.
Alberta’s fight to get our energy products to market has been the subject of much debate and opinion in recent months. The debate is due in large part to the price differential Alberta receives for its energy products when compared to our competitors throughout the world.
Alberta’s ability to move our energy product to market in a timely fashion is, in large part, a self-imposed problem. Many of the issues that have contributed to this situation that has now become critical have the fingerprints of people who should have been working towards solutions all over it. Those fingerprints are on the agreements that saw people who openly worked against Alberta.
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With people such as David Suzuki and Tzeporah Berman openly attacking all things petroleum, it makes absolutely no sense why any organization or government department would even consider contributing to their campaigns. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what has been happening under Alberta’s current government. Many of the members of the Alberta government’s own caucus have for years protested all things petroleum and actively worked to shut down our energy industry.
In the fall Legislative session that just wrapped up on Dec. 6, there was a chorus of voices from the government side of the house declaring they now, one and all, support Alberta’s mission to get our product to markets around the world. It left this MLA wondering exactly “How did we get here?” and how did we end up in this predicament we now find ourselves in.
Some of the fingerprints weren’t hard to find, particularly when you have a government Minister going to the extent of penning the forward for a book by an extremist that has shown open contempt for our province’s largest revenue generator. Some of the other fingerprints also come back to those currently sitting in the Federal government caucus.
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With forces provincially and federally working in concert against Alberta and Canada’s economic backbone, it’s almost as if they don’t understand how important the revenues generated in Alberta truly are. It’s only now that they’re getting the message loud and clear that the activities they’ve participated in previously have empowered the very people working against the most ethical oil production in the world coming from Alberta.
With billions of dollars filling the coffers federally and provincially that have the financial fingerprints of Alberta all over them. It makes the words of support from those guilty of contributing to the current situation completely hollow and absolutely meaningless.
With an election in Alberta’s near future, it’s important to remember how we got where we are today and exactly whose fingerprints are all over what has kept us from creating our own wealth in Alberta.