Friday, March 29, 2024

Top 5 This Week

spot_img

Related Posts

Bogus hysteria

Ralph is correct to dismiss phony outrage over sour gas

My relationship with Premier Ralph Klein has been one of mostly ups, but occasionally downs.

Got to know Ralph well when he held the tricky position of environment minister in former premier Don Getty’s ramshackle government, and even better after he won the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1992 and took over the reins of our province himself.

As environment minister in a province that at the time wasn’t particularly concerned about the environment, Klein nevertheless doggedly forged ahead and through his efforts, we have more protected natural land, lakes and rivers and just about the toughest environmental laws in our country.

Our few falling outs started with his introduction of VLTs in bars, followed by runaway government spending and a return to tax hikes, even though provincial coffers were overflowing, and finally his hapless comments on health care that destroyed Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s bid to be prime minister in the 2004 federal election.

That said, he’s always been cordial, and was so last week when he and I were on stage at the Calgary Jewish Community Centre for the B’nai Brith Lodge’s annual awards night and a roast for our longtime mutual friend Aron Eichler.

Klein was so warmly welcomed, and so congenial, I started to regret every word of criticism I’d ever penned at him.

Then, just a day or so later, I realized why he has the same esteem in our province as two of his predecessors, Ernest Manning and Peter Lougheed.

That was when he cut through all the bogus hysteria regarding the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board’s cautionary green light to Compton Petroleum Corporation’s plan for four sour gas wells on Calgary’s southeastern border.

You can hardly have missed the frightening scenario opponents of Compton’s proposal are putting out—300,000 men, women and children may have to be evacuated in an emergency from huge clouds of poison gas.

“One puff and you’re toast,” said one fanatical activist.

“They’re like a dictatorship,” said another of the energy and utilities board. “People still can’t believe that something that horrific is being considered,” bleated yet another.

Have they seen too many disaster movies—or like Liberal MLA David Swann—and perhaps Calgary Health Region medical officer Brent Friesen—political axes to grind?

Which is the point Klein made about the phony outrage.

“The only people who want to politicize this are the Liberals,” he said, in pointing out the board is absolutely independent from both governmental and industry pressure.

The board’s role is actually to protect the public by imposing the toughest restrictions on energy projects.

“The government doesn’t get involved in the rulings of the board. We appoint its members and we expect them to do a good job relative to enforcing safety standards,” he added.

The board surely does plan to enforce tough safety measures on Compton, telling the company its original proposals were not sufficient enough, and ordering it to decide by Aug. 15 if it still wishes to go ahead with the development, and, if so, submit an emergency response plan by Nov. 1.

So the board is not, as issue-hungry Swann would have you believe, hand in hand with the industry. If the board’s final rules are too stringent, and it looks like they could be, then the cost of complying could shatter the economic benefits of going ahead with the wells. No room to make them profitable.

So much for being “choked”—as an opponent put it—by an apparent ruthless lack of concern for human life.

Let’s be honest, just about every industrial, manufacturing, retailing and entertainment operation poses potential dangers. Walls or ceilings collapse, fires break out. You may get your fingers caught in a swinging door, or get trapped in an elevator. That’s why even small companies have a medical cabinet on hand, and large companies doctors or nurses.

Our province has the most buoyant economy and lowest unemployment rates in the nation. We’re the envy of the rest of Canada. An economic engine, all due to energy resources.

Four gas wells threatening thousands of innocent people?

OK, OK, let’s close down the oil sands plants at Fort McMurray—our biggest ever ace in the hole—and while we’re at it close down the entire province.

We should listen to Klein, the former visionary environment minister, rather than the “nattering nabobs of negativism” as one former U.S. vice-president put it.

Paul Jackson
Latest posts by Paul Jackson (see all)

Popular Articles