a special advisor to Premier Smith. “Today, the national interest has flipped again, and energy exports are now a source of revenue to save the ‘real’ Canada, which is central Canada. It’s the same kind of logic that has seen the emissions cap on oil and gas as well as the carbon tax.” If Canada wants to retaliate, Yager recommends putting a duty on the 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas imported by Ontario and Quebec from the northeastern United States. “That would be the appropriate tit-for-tat response,”Yager says. “You could build a nice pool of capital and clobber U.S. producers without driving a wedge between Alberta and the rest of the country.”
government tries to impose an export tariff on oil or natural gas.” Morton, like Mar, also counselled patience in responding to tariffs because “Trump’s tariffs on Canadian energy will punish American consumers more than Canadians.” THE NATIONAL INTEREST David Yager, who has studied and analyzed energy policy for more than 40 years, agrees tariffs on energy have the potential to drive a wedge between Alberta and the rest of the country in the same way the National Energy Program did. “The dynamic definition of national interest is what I struggle with. Going back several decades, it was in the national interest to get oil and gas across Canada so there was a drive to build pipelines east and west,” says Yager, a consultant who also serves as
LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL PRECEDENTS
And while imposing export tariffs on Canadian energy could be politically popular in central Canada, Morton suggests the action would not withstand a legal challenge thanks to legal and constitutional precedents set by former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed. “Peter Lougheed left future Alberta premiers with some very effective legal weapons. His government successfully challenged the constitutionality of Trudeau’s export tax on natural gas. He then teamed up with the other western premiers to negotiate a new constitutional amendment that affirms provincial jurisdiction over the development and conservation of natural resources,” Morton says. “Premier Danielle Smith should win any constitutional challenge if the federal
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INDUSTRY • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE 47 CAVENDISH, PEI
46 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 25 ISSUE 2
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