From Charles Davison,
Yellowknife
Northerners might be forgiven for not having noticed recent news about Alberta and the Northwest Territories signing a “memorandum of understanding” committing each government to work with the other to create “economic corridors.”
While there was a short story about this event in this paper, and also coverage on Cabin Radio, the GNWT has been silent about this agreement and what it might mean for the territory. Thus far, the media coverage seems entirely drawn from Alberta government news releases and video of the signing event. For reasons which are not clear, a single media group — Alberta’s right-wing Western Standard — was present for the signing.
While the goals of collaboration and mutual support in areas of transportation and “enhancing critical infrastructure” sound laudable, citizens of the NWT have a right to be concerned about where all of this might be headed. A number of valid questions can be raised.
First, why are we only hearing about this from the Alberta government? Why was there no GNWT announcement, either before or at the time of the signing? And, at least when the media stories came out, the actual text of the agreement had not been made public. Why not?
Second, the Alberta government aims to “improve Alberta’s access to the Arctic.” We can all agree this means giving Alberta a way to move more petroleum products to tidewater in order to benefit the province’s coffers even more (it just announced a $4.3 billion surplus from the last fiscal year). What are the implications for the North?
Forty years ago, plans for a pipeline to ship oil and gas products south were shelved due to the unknown consequences for the communities and environment of the North. Is this agreement going to commit the Northwest Territories to allow large amounts of Alberta oil to be piped or shipped north for export? There are reasons many local communities in British Columbia have opposed the building of pipelines across their lands. What does this memorandum of understanding mean for the people of the Northwest Territories who might have similar concerns?
The Cabin Radio coverage of the agreement’s announcement also noted that both governments have agreed to “back each other up when talking to Ottawa.” The visceral and unproductive hatred of the present Alberta government for “all things Ottawa” is well known. How far would the GNWT now be committed to “backing up” Alberta as it continuously picks fights with the federal government?
The political circumstances and cultures of the North and Alberta are very different. We still depend on Ottawa for many forms of support and assistance. Unlike the Alberta approach, our government thankfully does not immediately reject efforts by Ottawa to offer programs and support to improve the lives of all Canadians.
There may be some economic benefits to cooperation and collaboration with our nearest southern neighbour, but the Northwest Territories should nonetheless be cautious about how closely it hitches our wagon to the Alberta government. These are, let’s not forget, the same people have repeatedly delayed alerting the GNWT when contaminated water makes its way into our river systems, and who are moving to restrict various forms of gay and gender-based rights. This is a government that is taking steps to deny its own citizens the opportunity to take advantage of a federal dental care plan. And perhaps most important for this discussion, Alberta is a largely a climate-change resister, placing current revenues well ahead of any plans or hopes to slow the pace of global warming and to reduce the devastating effects it is having here and elsewhere around the world. The present Alberta government governs with its own policy priorities, and its own radical base, first and foremost in mind.
The GNWT owes citizens of the Northwest Territories a clear and convincing explanation of how our overall and longer-term interests will be protected and advanced even as it seems to now be linking us much more closely to a southern government whose direction in many areas is opposite to our own.