A Western Canada advocacy group is pleading for Alberta and Saskatchewan politicians to protect the natural resources sector from radical Liberal environmental plans.
On Tuesday, the Buffalo Project wrote a letter to Western Canadian politicians warning that the Trudeau government’s plan for a “green recovery” risks destroying the economy in the West.
“The ‘Green Recovery’ plan promised by the West’s representative in cabinet, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, may be the undoing of our industries as we know it,” the letter reads.
“To date, strategic lip service has been paid to modern agriculture and natural resource development while the Liberal government in the House of Commons has slowly undermined our ability to attract investment and build sustainable businesses.”
It is widely expected that the Trudeau government will announce a “green recovery” plan as part of the September 23 throne speech, which stipulates economic recovery after the pandemic must meet federal environmental goals.
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been secretive about his “ambitious green agenda,” one Liberal insider told the CBC that the cost of these new promises are “on a scale we haven’t seen before.”
The Buffalo Project claims that Trudeau may initiate a program as disastrous for Western Canada as the National Energy Program was, a program created by Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the ‘80s.
According to the Buffalo Project, Western politicians and senators have the potential to disrupt the green recovery plan, if they band together.
“The group of senators across Alberta and Saskatchewan could wield great power if acting as a united voice,” the letter states.
“Now, the promised remaking of the country’s socio-economic structure, we worry, will be the final nail driving our economy and way of life into the ground.”
Buffalo Project spokesman Derek Robinson said that given this unprecedented moment in Canadian history, Western premiers, MPs and senators need to act to protect their region’s interests.
“Everyone feels this is a crucial point in history,” he said.
“It’s time those MPs not focus on what’s best for the country, but what’s best for the West… to start acting like westerners, not Canadians.”
