Smith Wants to Talk About Energy With Trudeau

Trudeau and Smith are meeting at the Calgary Stampede. Smith says she has a three item agenda: Energy, Energy, and Energy.

Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Smith meet in Calgary today. The PMO asked Smith to name three topics she wanted to discuss. She replied “Energy, Energy, and Energy.”

That's a good Base-baiting soundbite but it's a disappointingly shallow and narrow agenda for such an important opportunity. Smith isn't out to seek a meeting of minds. She mistly wants to vent and give Trudeau a piece of her mind.

He will see her coming and will come out if the meeting say he’s fighting for a fix. That will imply, not inaccurately, that Smith is more about fixing for a fight .

Granted energy policy is a major issue for Albertans. And if that's all Smith wants to talk about, why not add some context to her reply? She could have shown us that she has some appreciation of much needed depth and breadth to her Fed-Prov agenda about energy policy.

To her credit she has said a net-zero electricity grid by 2035 is too ambitious and very damaging to Alberta's economy. Specific consequences are not offered, nor are options and alternatives to the 2035 timeline in any part of Smith's messaging. Why not? Fixing for a Fight. Not Fighting for a Fix?

What not embrace the inevitable energy transition to alternates to fossil fuels and find ways for Alberta to lead in such areas? She talks about LNG, hydrogen, bioenergy and even geothermal in Alberta. But they are merely political talking points. How can Fed-Prov collaboration be created to accelerate these transitions?

Why isn't that part of her Energy-Energy-Energy agenda? Fixing for a Fight. But Fighting for a Fix?

Then there is the energy sector clean up agenda. We need wellsite clean up and reclamation solutions to oilsands tailings issues. We could use some help fast-tracking efforts and innovation there. Tailings are a major issue being ignored by the Alberta government and Regulator.

Then there's the perpetual GHG emission issues. But why not expand the emissions conversation into solution seeking? Why not bring incentives into refitting the as-built structures to reduce power demands and reduce emissions? Alberta could be a living laboratory for such innovations. We have over $30billion of municipal infrastructure facilities that need repair. Why not go the next step and retrofit them to reduce energy demands?

This is some of what thoughtful solution-seeking leadership would be working on for the benefit of Alberta. I don't hold much hope that Smith will be taking such an approach. She seems more interested in the political theatre of fixing for a fight, not fighting for a fix.

Her Base wants to pick political fights with Trudeau. They will not accept her doing anything that would make him look good in any way.

So we will muddle through and stumble along as the problems mount and the urgency grows. Such are the consequences of Fixing for a Fight instead of Fighting for a Fix.