Alberta should be using oil revenues to increase its political influence
Ross Prusakowski, The Gateway (University of Alberta)
EDMONTON (CUP) — With Alberta’s provincial surplus likely to top $2 billion, and oil edging ever-closer to $70 a barrel, the whispers from other provinces about the unequal distribution of wealth in the confederation are growing ever louder. While the other economic engine of Canada, Ontario, regularly shrugs off these discontented rumbles when its economy is running full tilt, it seems to me that Alberta lacks that fortitude and strength of character.
If Albertans sense even the slightest discontent from elsewhere in the nation about their province’s swollen coffers, Alberta’s government and its sedate residents go running for the tinfoil hats and rifles, filled with horror over the prospect of the National Energy Program arising from the graveyard of Canadian politics to pillage and enslave the province.
This attitude would be understandable if a Trudeau equivalent had returned to inhabit 24 Sussex Drive, or if the federal government had taken to musing about raiding the coffers of the rich province to support the poor. However, none of this has transpired, and Albertans are once again appearing to be the Beverly Hillbillies of confederation — yokels lucky enough to stumble upon an unimaginable source of wealth, but not refined enough to fit in with our neighbours.
Yet, while the real Beverly Hillbillies knew and were able to accept that blind luck was at the root of their good fortune, and that they should share their resources and be charitable to those around, Albertans, it seems, aren’t that intelligent.
Our selective collective memory has bred into us a sense of privilege and has made us believe that reaping the benefits of the oil buried in the bedrock is part of our birthright — a right which is ours alone from which to benefit and prosper.
While this little fiction is convenient and befitting of Albertans’ conceited opinion of themselves, it ignores the fact that our standing in confederation could be swapped with that of Saskatchewan, if only the dinosaurs had died of boredom somewhere around Regina. Though it’s an entirely sobering and logical supposition, most of the province —giddy from petroleum profits — is completely ignorant of it.
Though the federal government seems to have no inclination to institute a son-of-NEP to seize a slice of oil revenues, Alberta would profit politically if it offered a fraction of the profits on its own.
By offering to distribute the wealth throughout Canada, Alberta would cultivate stronger political ties to the rest of the country, diminish the sense of western alienation, and potentially provide Alberta the clout it has long desired on national decisions.
Sadly, it would take leadership on the provincial level with both intelligence and foresight to use the advantage provided by our rich resources, something sorely lacking at the moment. Alberta can be comforted by the thought that an updated version of the NEP may no longer even be legal as a result of the addition of the notwithstanding clause — a gift for which Albertans ironically have Trudeau to thank.
After marking a century as a province, Albertans need to drop the insecurity and paranoia that overwhelms them every time another part of the country jealously eyes their overflowing coffers.
When the barrels are dry, holding onto memories of being a “have” province won’t help the province as it relies on the begrudging handouts from the rest of the nation to survive.
