If the United Conservative Party government was serious about protecting Albertans from soaring fuel prices, it could move to temporarily control the retail price of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Big fuel retailers would scream bloody murder, and market fundamentalist think tanks would suffer the vapours, but there wouldn’t be much they could do about it. Canadian provinces have the power to regulate fuel prices if they choose to use it.
That might not result in Albertans paying much less for fuel over the long term, but it would certainly buffer us from the sudden increase in world oil prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions regime being imposed on Russia by the West.
Instead, Premier Jason Kenney, who with provincial coffers suddenly filling up thanks to circumstances out of Alberta’s control may be warming to the idea of a premature election, has decided to stop collecting the province’s 13-cent-per-litre fuel tax.
“Stopping the provincial fuel tax puts money back in the pockets of Albertans when they need it most,” claimed Kenney, although the biggest impact will be to keep profits flowing into the pockets of fossil fuel companies, a policy unlikely to translate into many new Alberta jobs.
Appropriately enough, this decision to forgo provincial revenue so that big oil can keep its profits intact is set to take effect on April Fools Day. It will continue until the price for West Texas Intermediate crude dips back under $90 U.S. per barrel, the premier promised in his election-style announcement yesterday.
In addition to being a scaled down Kenney Pennies version of Ralph Klein’s legendary $400 “prosperity bonus” in 2006, the scheme announced yesterday provided a nice opportunity for Kenney and Finance Minister Travis Toews to whine about the federal government’s carbon tax, which is scheduled to rise 3 cents to 11 cents on the same day.
Since the biggest factor by far in the retail cost of fuel in Alberta is the world price of oil—never mind that the crude refined in Alberta comes from right here in Wild Rose Country—blaming carbon taxes for Western Canadian price increases is pretty silly.
But in addition to giving the UCP a chance to win back a few votes and maybe save Kenney’s political hide at his upcoming April 9 leadership review in Red Deer, screeching about carbon taxes also co-ordinates nicely with Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre’s campaign to lead the Conservative Party of Canada and move it even further to the right.
Meanwhile, the NDP opposition’s response to this suffers from some of the same flaws as the government’s scheme. It essentially endorses the UCP’s policy and calls for more of the same. “The UCP’s latest plan falls well short of what’s needed,” complained opposition energy critic Kathleen Ganley in a news release.
The NDP put forward an emergency motion in the Legislature calling for the 13-cent-a-litre tax to be suspended immediately instead of waiting for Apr. 1.
Why not call for a temporary price cap to protect Albertans from the spike in world prices? The stuff comes from here after all, and as Finance Minister Toews lamely pointed out, the government can’t force the fuel retailers not to jack up their prices to transfer all or some of the lost tax revenue directly into corporate profits.
“We’ll be monitoring it,” he promised yesterday’s news conference. “We will put pressure on gas retailers to ensure that they’re passing along this tax saving to consumers.” Seriously, though, no one believes this will actually happen.
But having endorsed the government’s bad idea, the opposition isn’t really in a place to criticize it later as the cracks in the plan become more apparent. They own it now, just as much as the government they’re paid to oppose.
As former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason observed in a tweet from his Okanagan retirement redoubt: “Oil company price gouging is the issue, not taxes. Alberta needs the revenue to offset the transportation and environmental costs associated with the use of petroleum fuels.” (He was responding to a tweet from NDP infrastructure critic Rod Loyola, which has been deleted.)
No matter what you’ve concluded from recent polls, the next general election in Alberta won’t be a cakewalk for the NDP. They’re going to need offer up some policy of their own, and not just accept the premises of the UCP’s shaky arguments.
So how about returning utilities to true public ownership, which would cost less and deliver more than the UCP’s market fundamentalist approach, which is delivering skyrocketing electricity prices?
That would more meaningful and effective than the three months of $50 electricity rebates Kenney also promised to deliver yesterday.
It would be a bold and popular policy for a party with a real chance, but no guarantee, of forming government.
Jason Kenney, this cancel culture nonsense has to stop!
Jason Kenney yesterday: “This cancel culture nonsense has to stop.”
Also Jason Kenney yesterday: You’re cancelled!
The latter cancellation was communicated to dozens, possibly hundreds, of Alberta Twitter users, who were informed that they’d been autoblocked by the premier’s account.
“You’re autoblocked from viewing and interacting with @jkenney’s Tweets,” the social media company’s message explained. “This happened when they were in safety mode, and we flagged your interactions as potentially abusive or spammy.”
“Avoid repetitive, uninvited replies,” Twitter added helpfully/not helpfully.
Notwithstanding claims by the Premier’s Office that Twitter did the deed, safety mode is turned on by the account holder. And pushing that button is pretty cheeky coming from the champions nasty attack tweets, the premier’s “issues managers.”
Needless to say, it is particularly offensive when many governments, including Kenney’s, use social media as one of their primary ways to communicate with citizens.
Jason Kenney: Your cancel culture nonsense has to stop!
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