“To the people of the West, let me say one thing and let me be clear: the West is now in. Canada will work for all of us”

— Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
speaking on election night in Calgary



Plenty of news media commentators have scolded the Conservatives for planning to not meet Canada’s commitments concerning the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an economist, is openly skeptical about the global warming apparatus — the dubious science, ruinous economic cost and paltry effects that Kyoto implementation would have on worldwide greenhouse gas concentrations. From where I’m standing, the new government’s expected course is good news for Canada, and simply fabulous for Alberta.

This province is Canada’s No. 1 carbon dioxide emitter. CO2 is a harmless gas crucial to life on Earth that global warming zealots and lazy journalists erroneously refer to as “pollution.” Alberta’s CO2 emissions are rising steadily as its industrial activity, especially oilsands production, grows. Canada’s emissions have risen by 24% since 1990, and Alberta’s are up even more. Kyoto demands that we reduce emissions to 6% below 1990 levels. Alberta would have borne the brunt of any federal CO2-cutting policies.

The Kyoto threat goes back to 1997, when then prime minister Jean Chrétien accepted the plan and spontaneously increased Canada’s CO2-reduction commitment. Before that — going back to the Mulroney years — we worried about a “carbon tax” by which Ottawa would grab more of Alberta’s resources wealth just because it could. We’ve lived under the threat of economic ruin for so long that most of us settled into simple denial, a pleasant psychotropic state in which everything was going just great (and most things were).

Most of Alberta’s business community, meanwhile, bought into a deeply cynical ploy to co-opt the Kyoto process. It surrendered the key issue of the validity of global warming science. Instead, it pretended to believe that global warming was a world-altering threat, and concocted fancy-sounding CO2-related committees, groups, initiatives, measures and programs. It was all aimed at convincing federal bureaucrats that we could meet Kyoto’s stern demands pain-free. For years, it seemed to work, but only because the equally cynical — and feckless — federal Liberals agreed to play “let’s pretend.”

The strategy of delay was no solution. Kyoto continued to hang over Alberta like an invisible sword of Damocles. One day, the Liberals would realize the puny measures were essentially worthless. One day, they’d rediscover the need to pander to this or that voter group that hated the oil industry or resented Albertans. One day, there would be a carbon tax, or a law requiring Alberta’s industries to purchase emissions “credits” at ruinous cost from a vendor whose postal code starts with “K”. One day, it would all crash down onto our necks.

Now, it won’t. Although Harper has only a minority government, the Opposition parties can’t pass their own joint budget or compel the government to introduce new taxes. If Harper wants a majority next time, he needs to sustain Canada’s economic growth — and Alberta’s energy sector has become the nation’s engine.

Even if environmentalist acolytes continue to invoke the incantations of the climate-change cult, Harper knows Kyoto is dead. Cooler heads have admitted as much, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a former Kyoto booster.

Admittedly, the evaporation of an abstruse threat most people have ignored has a muted impact. But it’s no less significant for going unrecognized. Alberta has just been liberated from the only serious impediment to another 10 years of economic expansion. We can handle natural market cycles and low commodity prices. Even if today’s prices fell by half, the province would continue to expand. Just a handful of years ago, US$30 per barrel of oil and natural gas priced at $5 per thousand cubic feet would have been considered a godsend. So bring on Canada’s post-Kyoto future. IE



George Koch is a Calgary freelance writer. More of his writing can be read at www.drjandmrk.com.