Stelmach's moment of truth
Will he have the backbone to bring in royalty changes and face down the oilpatch?
Graham Thomson
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, September 20, 2007
CALGARY - When Alberta government MLAs left their special caucus on Wednesday, they didn't walk out as much as they scurried out.
They scurried past the news media and out the door of McDougall Centre, refusing to comment to reporters who had spent hours waiting for the meeting to break up.
Even MLAs who stopped to answer questions were scurrying verbally -- using all their political skills to speak without saying anything.
Not one of them wanted to give a definitive opinion on the most explosive issue to hit provincial politics in years: the report by Alberta's royalty review panel claiming we don't get our fair share from energy development.
The MLAs' reaction shouldn't be surprising. They are still reeling from the report that hit them like a runaway oilsands truck on Tuesday. The report offers a logical, comprehensive and powerful argument that government should substantially raise energy royalties.
Some MLAs talked but it's obvious they don't know what to say.
"It's the report we asked for," said Health Minister Dave Hancock.
"It's got a lot of good information in it and it requires a thorough reading and understanding and digestion."
"I agree that Albertans need to be treated fairly," said MLA Jack Hayden. "We definitely need to treat Albertans fairly."
"It's been a while since there's been a review and it was time to do another one," said MLA Doug Griffiths.
Harvey Cenaiko, a Calgary MLA who won't be running next election, came the closest to giving an opinion. "The contents of the report are very good," he said.
But nobody came out and said the report should be adopted or rejected.
In fact, nobody admitted to actually reading it. MLAs said they hadn't had time.
During Wednesday's caucus, they were briefed by Bill Hunter, the chairman of the panel that wrote the report.
Afterwards, Hunter said diplomatically he got a varied response from MLAs in the meeting. Some MLAs congratulated him, others were skeptical of his findings that Albertans were shortchanged by $1.9 billion in royalties last year alone.
PERCEPTION OF INEPTITUDE
One MLA told me later that Hunter had received a "frosty" reception from some in the room.
These are the MLAs who won't or can't believe the government was so inept as to let billions of dollars slip through its fingers over the past five or six years.
They support the energy company argument that, if adopted, the report's recommendations would damage the industry by raising royalty rates too high.
Their argument is not just economic, of course, it's also political.
If Premier Ed Stelmach accepts the report's recommendation he will be admitting the government under former premier Ralph Klein was inept -- and that government was made up of just about every MLA in Wednesday's caucus meeting.
And that is why Bill Hunter's report is so exceptional. It is not just a smoking gun proving Albertans did not get their fair share of energy revenues, it is still very much a loaded gun pointed at the head of the Stelmach government.
If he accepts the report, he risks implicating himself and fellow MLAs as being derelict in their fiduciary responsibilities under Klein. If he rejects the report, he might as well hand it over to the opposition to use as their platform in the next election.
No matter what decision Stelmach makes, he risks shooting himself in the head.
He is in a precarious position which is all the more exceptional because he did this to himself by commissioning the report as part of a promise made during the leadership race.
For that Stelmach should be given considerable credit.
He formed the review panel, gave it a generous mandate and set it loose upon the energy sector. When the panel submitted the report on Tuesday, Stelmach made it public minutes after receiving a copy himself.
It is the kind of behaviour that would have been unthinkable under the Klein government that saw controversial reports as akin to radioactive waste suitable only for disposal deep underground or, if technology allowed, being shot into the sun.
Stelmach won't say what he'll do with the report until mid-October. However, on Wednesday he hinted broadly he just might accept it.
When asked what he would say to critics who think he doesn't have the backbone to implement the report's recommendations, Stelmach said: "They're in for a surprise. I won't be intimidated, as I said before, by any position taken by either the oil industry or others that may take a different opposing position. We're there to make the best decision."
That decision will come mid-October. We'll see then if the rookie premier will demonstrate leadership and take a strong stand -- and end 10 months of Stelmachian scurrying.
gthomson@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
