12 Things Alberta Can Do To Punish British Columbia For Blocking the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Many people, and politicians (which are also people 🙂 ) have suggested that Alberta cut off the oil supply to British Colombia in an effort to punish the BC Premier, John Horgan.  While that is one possibility, there are other things that can be done.

Some options are reasonable, some are draconian and some of them are just not possible.

Here are most of the options available to Alberta:

1. Block BC Workers – This is possible but not likely:
   • it would be very disruptive to business as the two provinces have a largely integrated work force
   • it would annoy BC workers, many of which are in the oil sector, and they are some of Alberta’s biggest boosters in BC so it would be counterproductive to send them home
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2. Not Buy Electricity From BC – This is doable and in fact has already started
   • Alberta walked away from talks to buy BC hydro power from the massive new “Site C” hydro project on February 1, 2018 when the Trans Mountain spat began
   • this is a half billion dollar annual sale that BC is playing with
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3. Reduce Transfer Payments from Alberta to BC – This is NOT possible for two reasons:
   • Transfer payments under the Federal Equalization program are made by the FEDERAL Government primarily using money that it collects in income tax which is remitted from all Canadian citizens directly to the Federal Government
   • BC does not receive equalization payments.  British Columbia is a “have” province that pays into the system for the “have not” provinces
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4. Appeal To The Trudeau Federal Government To:
   1. reduce Federal transfer payments – remember that provincial income tax is collected by the Federal Government and is doled out by the feds, largely at their whim
   2. delay / cancel Federally funded projects in BC
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5. Block Alberta Oil Delivery to BC – This can be done
   • About 90% of British Columbia’s oil and gas comes from Alberta
     • BC’s largest refinery, which produces 50% of southern BC’s gasoline products, gets nearly all of its oil from Alberta
     • About 50% of that supply oil comes from the existing Trans Mountain pipeline
     • the existing Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline “batches” the petroleum products so that one day it ships crude oil and the next it might ship fully refined gasoline
   • BC gasoline prices are already the highest in the country (today about $1.50/liter)
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6. Block Purchases of BC Natural Gas – This can be done
   • It is not well known that BC sells a vast amount of Natural Gas to Alberta, totaling more than $3B in 2014 alone
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7. Attempting to Reduce BC Tourism – This can be done but would like have a minimal effect
   • Albertans are the largest single source of tourism dollars in BC, accounting for 14% of BC’s total tourism
   • The Alberta government could run ad campaigns asking Albertans not to travel to BC
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8. Block Beef Sales To BC – This can be done
   • BC buys $.5B worth of Alberta beef every year according to Statistics Canada
   • Compensation to Alberta ranchers and slaughter houses would likely be required
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9. Block Grain Sales to BC – This can be done
   • Alberta exports more than $1.25B worth of grains consumed in BC every year
   • Compensation to Alberta farmers and agencies would likely be required
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10. Block BC Lumber Sales in Alberta – This can be done
    • lumber is easily targeted although lumber restrictions would have notable negative implications in Alberta’s construction industry that has just recovered from the 2015 oil crash
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11. Restrict BC Consumer Goods Sales – This is doable and has already started
    • Alberta began boycotting BC Wine on February 6th, 2018 to put pressure on the Horgan BC Government to change their position on Trans Mountain
    • Other BC products, like fruit, beer.
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12. Add New Tax to BC Products – This is doable
    • To reduce some of the pain on Albertans from a complete elimination of some BC products, the Alberta government could add a sizable tax to some products
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