EDMONTON – Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is coming to Alberta to discuss the oilsands, but it isn’t clear if he will tour the development that he says is killing manufacturing jobs in Central Canada – comments that have angered western premiers.
Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason says Mulcair is to fly into Edmonton May 30 for meetings in the capital the following day.
“I hope that Tom’s visit to Alberta will be very productive for Albertans and for all Canadians,” Mason said Friday.
Mason also weighed in on his federal counterpart’s controversial comments, saying that while there’s no disputing that the Canadian dollar is higher due to increased volume of oil exports, there needs to be more research done on the impact it has on the rest of the country.
When asked whether or not Mulcair’s statements were creating an “east versus west” divide, Mason said people are “exploiting” them and interpreting them in a way to make them more divisive.
“I think the problem is that the discussion is spiralling out of control. I think some face to face dialogue is exactly what we need,” he said.
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The federal NDP leader will be in Alberta at the end of May. Mason said Mulcair is to meet with unnamed political and business leaders. It’s also hoped he’ll be able to meet with key politicians and visit the oil sands.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s staff said they haven’t received any requests from the federal NDP for a meeting with the premier. Redford has said, though, that she won’t meet with Mulcair until he visits the Fort McMurray region to educate himself about the oilsands.
Mulcair and his staff in Ottawa were not available for comment.
The federal NDP leader, however, is still insisting that statistics on manufacturing job losses are “irrefutable'” and that “everyone” agrees more than half of those losses are the direct result of the artificially high Canadian dollar created by booming energy exports, particularly from Alberta’s oilsands.
However, a recent study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy and the latest Statistics Canada report on manufacturing output cast doubt on just how seriously Canada is afflicted.
The IRPP study concludes that about one-quarter of Canadian manufacturing output is suffering due to the high dollar.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has also been a vocal critic of Mulcair’s statements about the oilsands.
Mulcair has said the Harper government is allowing foreign oil companies to “use our air, our soil and our water as an unlimited, free dumping ground.”
He said that if resource companies were required to pay for their pollution, the cost of oilsands bitumen and other natural resource exports would rise and the upward pressure on the dollar would ease.
With files from Global News
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