Our federal government prides itself on making economic decisions that affect everyone in Canada, and ensuring the decisions are made in a manner which helps Canadians as a group, not specific parts of the country. Correct?
The federal Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on a platform one year ago that they represent every Canadian, and claimed the were the only party that could.
That’s not true. Some of the most important decisions that affect Canadians are not decided by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government or Trudeau himself, they’re decided by two or three dozen Quebec MNAs (MLAs, but of course in Quebec they can’t just call them that), and Trudeau knows it. It was admitted in national news coverage.
The National Energy Board panel looking at the Energy East Pipeline project has been beset with political interference and appears to be a bad joke. In September of this year three NEB pipeline panel members walked away from the process after serious allegations of political interference were made. It was alleged at least one of the three met with former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who was at the time a lobbyist for TransCanada, the corporation which is applying to develop the Energy East project.
It was a dumb move, as even if all they did at the meeting was drink tea and talk hockey, it looks extremely bad. It looks like a seasoned political pro was trying to exert influence behind the scenes, even if Charest was doing nothing of the sort.
As the news of these developments came to light, it was interesting that, although some remain hopeful Energy East will be approved, it appears an expert working for ScotiaBank felt otherwise. Not long after the three panel members quit, ScotiaBank expert Robert Hope stated he felt the odds of Energy East being approved were getting worse and worse.
Also, the Canadian Press reported Hope as stating, “he believes fervent opposition in Montreal makes it politically unpalatable for the federal Liberals to approve (Energy East) because that may endanger the 33 seats they gained in Quebec during the 2015 election.”
So apparently the premise of whether or not pipeline projects get approved in Canada hangs on whether three dozen Quebec MNAs like it the idea or not.