Alberta’s NDP unceremoniously cut ties with CEMA, an organization the previous government formed, over the Christmas holidays. This kind of heartache belongs in a holiday song. Last Christmas, we gave you a grant. N.D.P. won, and then yanked it back! This year, to save GHG, we’ll tax gas and cap e-miss-ionnnssss…”

CEMA’s mission was to build social licence for the oil sands by engaging multiple stakeholders in order to “produce recommendations and management frameworks pertaining to the cumulative impact of oil sands development in North-Eastern Alberta“. It’s clear that the current NDP government is pursuing social licence through other means these days, mainly the carbon tax and cap on oil sands emissions that it promoted in Paris.