Alberta and Saskatchewan must take a page from Atlantic Canada, and simply defy and ignore Ottawas injurious energy policies.

Last week, Reuters broke a story that Canadas largest oil refinery, Irving Oil in New Brunswick, quietly scrapped its 2020 emission reduction target of 17 per cent. It made the pledge in 2005 to bolster Liberals who were campaigning on a promise to fight climate change. No public announcement accompanied the change in policy, which was removed from the companys website earlier this year.

When asked for comment, Irving said the targets jeopardize the refinerys future financial viability. The company refines 320,000 barrel per day and exports half to the U.S. northeast. A spokesman said obliquely: We continually update our standards to accurately reflect the targets set in the areas where we operate.

Then theres Newfoundland and Labrador, who have also put the interests of people, jobs, and the economy first over the made-in-Ottawa climate emergency. Last week, the province issued the first of many permits to mostly foreign oil giants who want to invest up to $4 billion in offshore exploration.

Newfoundland shamelessly and admirably hopes to nearly triple its oil production by 2030 to 650,000 barrels of oil daily, up from 230,000 barrels per day now.

Hypocritically, Ottawas Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi opted to support giving Newfoundland the green light. He issued a press release worthy of a Trump tweet: The decision was made following a thorough and science-based environmental assessment process concluding that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects when mitigation measures are taken into account.

Then the feds claimed, without blushing, that the Chinese company who got the permit would comply with environmental and other laws because they said they would. They also said they would honour canola contracts. As well as the Sino-British Joint Declaration concerning Hong Kong.

Ottawa has given this region and Quebec both defiant in the past a free pass in terms of wildlife monitoring, Indigenous rights and tanker shipping hazards. Compare that with what has happened in the West.

Emboldened by favouritism, Newfoundlands Natural Resources minister Siobhan Coady gushed that there could be 650 Hibernias (1.9 billion barrels produced since 1997), in other words. I dont expect there is, but (there) will be discoveries made in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador

By contrast, an Alberta or Saskatchewan leader who laid out, and lauded, the phenomenal economic and jobs potential of the oilsands, LNG largesse, or conventional gas deposits, would be trolled as an evil climate change denier. He or she would be shunned in Ottawa, decried by the socialists and Quebeckers and Liberals, and pilloried by the climate change industry and many in the media.

But Atlantic Canadians have their priorities right. They understand that resource development is what has built Canada and will do so in the future, that Ottawa doesnt know what its doing and should be shrugged off or disobeyed. In 2017, the Trudeau climate change gang started to circle Newfoundland with talk of centralized regulation and revised environmental reviews and other red tape. They were told to butt out.

The industry threatened: Our members and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will not accept the loss or delay of the benefits of these valuable resources while we struggle to pay for the demands of an aging population.

One observer underscored the seriousness of the pushback: Newfoundland has always been a fighting province. Anything that goes against perceived ownership of resources, whether its fisheries or oil and gas, they will fight the federal government on it.

Thats what the West must do, simply tell Ottawa to butt out and go ahead and develop the countrys resources. A government that destroys economic activities without justification or plays favourites is no longer legitimate, and deserves disobedience or worse.

Financial Post

See the article here:

Diane Francis: If Ottawa won't listen to the West on resources, perhaps the West should stop listening to Ottawa - Financial Post