Happy New Year

By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

Hello Strathmore and Happy New Year! As this is written Canada has just defeated Russia to win gold at the World Junior Hockey Championships with an incredible comeback from a 3-1 deficit. They sure did Canada proud.
In a Dec. 30 article in the Globe and Mail, U.S. activist Bill McKibben advocates shutting down Canada’s oil and gas sector, the single biggest contributor to Canadian prosperity. The recently established Canadian Energy Centre pointed out on Dec. 31 that the best way to reduce global emissions is to increase the global reach of our energy industry. I would like to quote a few paragraphs from the CEC rebuttal to Mr. McKibben. (The full article can be found on the Canadian Energy Centre website, www.canadianenergycentre.ca/calls-to-shutter-canadas-oil-and-gas-industry-ignores-opportunity-to-reduce-global-carbon-footprint/):
• The New York-based activist writes that “keeping Alberta’s oil underground is going to become as crucial a global priority as keeping the Amazon rain forest standing tall” as climate change impacts intensify in the 2020s, citing “inexorable math” without using any numbers to prove the comparison.
• The reality is that Canada has a far greater opportunity to help reduce the world’s carbon footprint by expanding the reach of its oil and gas industry than it does by keeping its vast resources in the ground.
• Canada also understands the importance of protecting forests – Alberta is home to the world’s largest contiguous area of protected boreal forest; approximately 68,600 square kilometres set aside in 2018 and 2019 thanks to collaboration between oil and gas producers, First Nations and government.
• Across Canada, we are rightly concerned about emissions from all sectors, but it is important to keep in mind how we actually fit into the global climate dynamics around us.
• In 2014, Canada’s total share of the world’s CO2-equivalent emissions was 1.6 percent, according to the most recent data calculated by the World Resources Institute, which is used by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
• Despite Canada’s oil production increasing by 52 per cent over the same period, our share went down from 1.8 per cent in 2005 because energy demand in emerging economies is growing. Like that of other developed countries, Canada’s share of global greenhouse gases “is anticipated to continue to decline with the expected rapid increase in emissions from developing and emerging countries, particularly China, India, Brazil and Indonesia,” ECCC says.
• It’s hard to imagine that anything responsible for less than five per cent of a problem would be facing a “literally now or never” moment to shut down, as McKibben writes about Canada.
This is important to remember as Canadian emissions are swamped by rising global emissions in rapidly growing economies such as India and China. Much of the rise in global emissions is fuelled by coal which could be displaced by Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The facts are clear. If we really want to reduce global emissions, we need more clean Canadian energy, not less. Shutting down the Canadian energy industry will impoverish Alberta and Canada while doing nothing to reduce global emissions. To further quote the CEC article:
“Canada’s oil and gas industry provided $108 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2018 and supported almost 530,000 jobs across the country in 2017, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.”
Global oil and gas demand is projected to keep rising. We are the cleanest and greenest. It’s time to fight back against the misinformation that is being spouted by people whose agendas do not include our prosperity and whose proposals would actually make emissions worse.
As always, I love to hear from you.
(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore, Minister of Status of Women and Minister of Culture and Multiculturalism)