Re: Stéphane Dion criticizes Thomas Mulcair for East-West strategy
Oilsands profits inflated, Mulcair charges
Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, who came under blistering attack from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and western premiers Wednesday over his oilsands policy, turned up the political heat by saying that profits earned by oilsands firms are artificially inflated.
"Right now, we're allowing them to use the air, the water and the land as a free dumping ground and that's where the problem arises," Mulcair said in an interview Wednesday with The Vancouver Sun.
As a result, "profits are higher than they should be" in the oilsands sector.
"Why is that the case? Because they're not assuming their obligations under the law because the government is not enforcing the law."
Earlier Wednesday, Harper accused Mulcair of calling the oilsands industry a "disease" that should be shut down, while Alberta Premier Alison Redford said the NDP leader should show more "courtesy" by informing himself properly before making "disparaging comments about Alberta."
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon also tore into the Montreal MP, who has blamed lax federal regulation of the oilsands industry for an inflated dollar and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs across Canada, especially in Ontario and Quebec.
"The leader of the NDP and our-selves are really on different wave-lengths here," Harper said in the House of Commons. "We're not interested in identifying which industries we're going to call diseases and shut down."
Harper was referring to Mulcair's argument that the oilsands industry has caused "Dutch disease" - a term to describe the damage experienced by manufacturing firms due to a currency inflated by soaring natural-resources exports.
His comments coincide with a report from the respected Institute for Research on Public Policy, which concluded that Canada is suffering from a "mild case" of the Dutch disease.
Redford made her strongest statements yet on the controversy after Mulcair dismissed her, Premier Christy Clark and Saskatchewan's Wall a day earlier as Harper's "messengers" in the oilsands controversy.
"Is this national leadership?" Red-ford wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "Thomas Mulcair continues to make divisive, ill-informed and false comments."
"There they go again. Mulcair, NDP stick to attack on West, dismiss concerns of western leaders and economists," Wall tweeted Falcon, meanwhile, said Mul-cair is making "incredibly ignorant" comments about the role of natural resources in Canada's economy.
"I am just amazed that he is going to start out his leadership aspirations to want to be prime minister by having an attack on the West."
Falcon also dismissed the suggestion that western premiers are Harper's messengers.
"Of course not. The prime minister or the finance minister has never phoned me to suggest what we should be saying about ignorant comments that a national leader may say," he said.
"I'm just telling you exactly what I think about those comments. When I read them, at the time, I was shaking my head. I just could not believe it," he added.
Acting Liberal leader Bob Rae said Mulcair is dividing the country and disrespecting the premiers.
"You don't create a national strategy as a country by dismissing the premiers as messengers for one party or another," Rae told reporters.
"The premiers are serious, elected people who are defending the interests of their province, and if you disagree with them the least can do is treat them with respect."
Mulcair, who has always rejected allegations he wants to shut down the oil-sands sector, pointed out in Wednesday's interview that he's not criticizing Alberta's environmental laws.
"My debate has been with Stephen Harper all along," Mulcair said when asked about the premiers' criticism. "I've never referred to any failure on the part of the government of Alberta."
He was asked several times Tuesday and again Wednesday if his goal is to reduce production from the oilsands to lower the dollar.
Mulcair, who advocates a cap-and-trade system to bring down Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, replied each time that his only objective is to enforce the "polluter pay" principle by enforcing federal laws such as the Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Act.
He drew attention Tuesday to the Sydney tar ponds, one of Canada's worst ecological messes caused by effluent from a now-closed steel mill on Cape Breton Island. A Toronto Star report last month described it as "an industrial wasteland of toxic sludge."
Mulcair said Canadians will have to pay $1 billion to clean that up.
"What we're leaving future generations are dozens and dozens and dozens of tar ponds," Mulcair said of the oilsands sector.
Oilsands profits inflated, Mulcair charges
