By Dene Moore

They are a group of self-described concerned citizens. Their members come from all sectors and different backgrounds but they have one very important thing in common.

They have had enough.

With talk of Western alienation and separation in Alberta and Saskatchewan, their Buffalo Project is gaining attention.

“There’s a lot of angst. There’s a lot of anger right now,” says Derek Robinson, spokesman for the recently formed group of Alberta and Saskatchewan businesspeople and former chief of digital strategy for ex-Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

“So how do we have a conversation about fixing Canada? And how do we force the federal government to take action? Because the deal that Western Canada has within Confederation, it’s always been slanted against the West.”

That is the underlying raison d’etre for the Buffalo Project.

The group’s board includes several high-ranking businesspeople from a cross-section of prairie sectors: Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim; Stan Grad, president of Soderglen Ranches Ltd. and co-founder of Grad & Walker Energy Corp.; Dallas Howe, former chairman of Potash Corp.; Bill Turnbull, president of W.G. Turnbull and Associates

real estate developers; Don Chynoweth, international relations and logistics consultant, and Tim Hearn, former chairman and CEO of Imperial Oil Limited, current chairman of the consulting/investment management and philanthropic organization Hearn & Associates.

The Buffalo Project began to take shape well before the federal vote, in 2018. With an NDP government in control of the Alberta legislature, Wall was seen by many conservatives in the two prairie provinces as the champion of the embattled energy industry – and he was leaving politics.

The federal Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with their carbon tax ultimatum, had made no headway in winning over the two western provinces. In his waning days at the helm, Wall helped to bring together like-minded individuals who felt the two provinces needed a strong voice to defend their interests.

“Alberta and Saskatchewan are aligned on so many issues. Probably more so than ever before,” says Robinson.

The name came from a Conservative proposal for the creation of a single province called Buffalo where the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are today.

When the Liberals won the 1904 election, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was having none of the Conservative plan.

“Instead the new provinces were divided north-south along a wholly arbitrary line that reflected no geographic or cultural feature — even famously dividing the community of Lloydminster in half. The division was made because two provinces would be easier to control than one large one and a north-south split divided the potential strength of the Conservative Party which was concentrated in the south along the CPR mainline,” says the Canadian Encyclopedia.

“For 115 years we’ve been separated because Sir Wilfrid Laurier decided to separate the two provinces because they thought they would compete against powerful provinces in the East,” Robinson says.

Members of the Buffalo Project are federalists, Robinson says, and they do not support calls to separate. They do support Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Scott Moe, the Saskatchewan premier, in their call for a “New Deal” for the West.

“We’re federalists. We want to find solutions within Canada but we have to have people actively seeking out and finding solutions,” Robinson says.

“People have extremist views and you can’t dismiss the sentiment, but we want to rise above all the noise that’s happening and say what’s a way we can have a nation-building conversation about how Alberta and Saskatchewan can go on living the way they want to live and develop their way of life and contribute to the wealth of the nation… and they’re not demonized every step of the way.

“What’s happening in Western Canada is effecting every sector and every person,” Robinson says.

It would be a mistake to believe that the discontent in these two prairie provinces is about oil and gas alone, he says.

“People don’t appreciate what’s happening here. We’re not whiners. Our way of life is being threatened,” Robinson says. “People in Western Canada feel attacked.”

The energy sector is a major factor, though. Robinson says Alberta and Saskatchewan are vilified despite being global leaders in innovations in the energy sector. The thriving solar and wind energy sectors in the provinces are given short shrift.

Eastern Canada continues to import oil from Saudi Arabia on tankers while the Energy East pipeline languishes, he says. It’s a “frustrating hypocrisy.”

“The whole country needs to wake up and be proud of this industry and be proud of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta and Saskatchewan – and Alberta in particular – they paid for most of the wealth across Canada.”

The Buffalo Project provides a substantial opportunity to shape – or reshape, as the case may be – public opinion.

And the Buffalo Project will not be alone in this endeavour.

Alberta’s UCP government has also announced creation of the Canadian Energy Centre – an arm’s length “energy war room” to counter what Kenney and many others call a campaign of misinformation against Alberta’s energy sector.

Kenney and Moe have wasted no time since the October election – an election that saw the Liberals shut out of the two provinces – in putting pressure on Trudeau for a New Deal for the prairie provinces.

Their New Deal includes cancellation of the carbon tax and renegotiation of the federal equalization formula.

The offices of Kenney and Moe declined to respond to requests for an interview as did Turnbull and Fagerheim. Wall declined a request to be interviewed.

People don’t appreciate what’s happening here. We’re not whiners. Our way of life is being threatened

 

The Buffalo Project has been described by some as a U.S.-style Political Action Committee, or PAC. Given the role PACs have had in the tumultuous politics south of the border, it’s not a welcome comparison.

“There are no PACs in Canada. That is a U.S. thing,” says Robinson. “Someone dubbed us that and that’s wrong. We’re a concerned citizens group, like so many other citizens groups out there.”

The Buffalo Project will work largely behind the scenes. In the coming months and years the group’s activities will range from hosting events to leveraging connections to make the necessary conversations happen to funding and organizing research if need be.

“We’ve been talking about a New Deal for a long time… . How do we continue to make progress and really just tell the federal government that now is the time,” Robinson says.

Trudeau lacks the leadership to champion the progressive green energy industry in the face of criticism, Robinson says. Canada should be positioning itself as the progressive energy industry the world needs, he says, with green innovations such as carbon capture.

“We need a new nation building project. Right now there is nothing happening with a strong vision for the country that includes all parts of the country. Right it seems to just include the East and no wonder the West is feeling left out,” he says.

“Pretty soon they won’t have the money that’s coming out of Alberta and Saskatchewan because they’ve driven everything away to other parts of the world that have not done anything for emissions. It’s bad policy.”

The group is looking for a federal government with a new economic vision for Canada that includes all of Canada, he says. And four years to the next federal election is too long to wait for that.

“We have a role to rise above a lot of the noise that’s happening and help find this New Deal for Canada, find this new vision for a Canada that includes everybody, not just one or two parts of the country.”

Editor’s note: The story was updated on Nov. 20, 2019, to reflect changes in the composition of the Buffalo Project board.

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