January 16, 2025
B.C. is getting what it wanted, and it sure doesn't like it.
Vancouverites should be celebrating the high fuel prices, as they would seem certain to preclude all but the most essential travel.
Vancouverites should be celebrating the high fuel prices, as they would seem certain to preclude all but the most essential travel.

How rich is it that the province of British Columbia, which has done so much to prevent Alberta from shipping more oil, has gone to court to force that province to keep sending as much of the stuff as possible?

If B.C. Premier John Horgan has any grasp of irony at all — not to mention a sense of the truly ridiculous — he must look in the mirror and see Jim Carrey. It would take the sort of mind behind the creation of Ace Ventura to fully appreciate the absurdity of the position B.C. has manufactured for itself thanks to its determined posturing and preaching on the matter of oil pipelines and climate change.

Horgan’s government went to court Wednesday to shake its fist at Alberta, insisting that new Premier Jason Kenney has violated the constitution by proclaiming a new law enabling him to shut off the taps that send oil to B.C.

Horgan’s New Democrats claim the law should be rejected because it targets just one province: theirs. Of course, since the pipeline in question only goes to one province — there being no other provinces between Alberta and the Pacific — it would be impossible for it to do otherwise. And Alberta has been making the exact same argument about Ottawa’s Bill C-48, which would place limits on tanker traffic along the B.C. coast, which Alberta says is a single-minded attack on its energy industry, and which enacts restrictions that apply to one coast but not the other.

Horgan became premier just under two years ago, and has had all that time to get along with Rachel Notley, a fellow New Democrat who served as Alberta’s premier until Kenney displaced her two weeks ago. He couldn’t manage it. Notley was a big champion of measures to protect the environment and reduce Alberta’s outsized production of greenhouse-gas emissions. She couldn’t do it alone, however, and needed co-operation from like-minded leftists like Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They both failed her, Horgan spectacularly so. By doing all he could to obstruct the Trans Mountain pipeline, he significantly impeded efforts to revive Alberta’s economy and win public support for other emissions-reduction programs. That in turn fed the discontent that resulted in Kenney’s defeat of Notley and support for his pledge to play just as nasty as B.C. has been doing.

So now Horgan finds himself demanding the courts find a way to rescue him. His position could stand as a study in paradox. A province that enjoys its self-image as a bastion of green awareness — it has even positioned the Green party as a prop to support Horgan’s NDP — has discovered that a reduced supply of the oil and gas it so dislikes can have the effect of pushing up prices. In parts of the province a litre has recently gone for $1.70, which can mean an expensive fill up even for moderately efficient vehicles.

B.C. has had a carbon tax for more than a decade, and the core argument for a carbon tax is that higher prices help reduce consumption. That being the case, Vancouverites should be celebrating in the streets at the run-up in prices, as it would seem certain to get people out of their cars for all but the most essential travel. No more cruising around the mountains to enjoy the scenery, no more quick trips to the ski slopes, no more topping up the boat for a jaunt around the islands. Who needs that stuff when the environment is at risk?

Unfortunately, Horgan appears to lack the courage of his convictions, and now wants the taps opened wide, and kept that way. In its court filing, B.C. says obtaining fuel is a complex business, and that complexity precludes it from quickly finding another source. These are the same people, mind, who have insisted for years that oil is a dirty commodity that is wholly unnecessary, given the ready availability of alternatives in the wind and the sun.

Crude needs to be refined before it becomes gasoline, and Horgan is also now championing an increase in refining capacity, even though refineries are noted emitters of the climate-changing gases on which the NDP and its fellow “progressives” have mounted a decades-long moral crusade. Horgan wants Ottawa to ensure more refined product comes B.C.’s way, and thinks Alberta might be just the place for an increase in capacity. He’s also not entirely opposed — not at the moment, anyway — to a $22-billion proposal to build a refinery in B.C. that has been gathering dust while politicians turned up their noses at anything so contrary to their preferred posturing. “I look forward to (entrepreneur David Black) entering the regulatory process to see if he has the wherewithal, in terms of capital, in terms of expertise, to pull that off,” Horgan commented recently.

Almost as amusing as watching Horgan pretzelize himself as he struggles to make past positions marry with current contortions is the speed with which allied camps have sought other explanations for the situation, and fanciful remedies.

The CBC quotes Marc Lee, a senior economist with the left-wing Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, as promoting a maximum price on gasoline, which of course directly contradicts the point of carbon taxes, and encourages consumption rather than discouraging it. He sees that old villain, price gouging, as the real culprit, and advocates the old solution: tell them to stop!

“There’s a lot of money leaving Vancouver and going to Alberta. I think it’s time for governments to step in and regulate this market,” Lee said.

But of course. Regulate prices. Just look at how successful regulated gas prices have been in places like Venezuela, where you could fill your car for about 38 cents a litre last year. Or Nigeria, where even today you can get a litre for about 52 cents. Now, those are places that understand the marketplace, and the fight against emissions.

You don’t really have to make fun of governments like Horgan’s and their bad ideas. Eventually they do it themselves.

See Also:

(1) Kenney appeals to B.C. drivers in pipeline fight

(2) Here’s what would happen if Alberta really does ‘turn off the taps’ on B.C.

(3) Quebec doesn’t want another pipeline, François Legault tells Jason Kenney

(4) Horgan reaping what he sowed

(5) B.C. being hypocritical with stance on Alberta oil

There’s More:

(6) Jason Kenney’s first moves show he’s more wily than scary

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