OTTAWA — Afghanistan and the oilsands were two topics that came up Thursday when Prime Minister Stephen Harper chatted with one of the most powerful lawmakers in the United States.
Harper and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, discussed “a number of topics of mutual interest, including joint national security interests in Afghanistan,” according to a statement from her office.
Pelosi also “emphasized the importance of intellectual property rights, trade and border security.” The two then discussed Pelosi’s recent meetings on “various energy security issues,” including the Alberta oilsands.
Earlier in the day, environmental groups and First Nations urged Pelosi to use her country’s buying power to demand cleaner oil from Canada.
They told Pelosi and congressman Ed Markey that the United States can push the federal and Alberta governments to take a tougher stance on the oilsands industry.
“I think they understood very clearly what we were saying, that the customer is always right,” said Rick Smith, head of Environmental Defence.
“And in this case, the customer can demand better. And so they were very receptive to that message.”
Pelosi is the third-ranking politician in the U.S., and Markey — chair of an important energy committee — co-authored an environmental bill now working its way through the U.S. Senate. They are in Ottawa meeting key players in the energy and environmental sectors.
Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation told Pelosi about health concerns in his tiny community on the Athabasca River in Alberta.
A recent study linked oilsands facilities to high levels of lead, mercury and other heavy metals in the Athabasca River system.
“I think she found it kind of shocking in regards to that,” Adam said.
“She didn’t say much in regards to the ... health issues. She was more ... listening to our concerns and she was taking it all in. And our message to her was very clear that there had to be something done.”
One topic the environmentalists didn’t delve too deeply into Thursday was the expansion of a TransCanada Corp. pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The expansion, called Keystone XL, will cut on a diagonal across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska before jutting south to Port Arthur, Texas. Keystone XL has received approval from Canadian regulators, and is now awaiting the go-ahead from the U.S. State Department.
Smith said Pelosi questioned whether the expansion is needed.
“They were very much in a listening mode,” he said. “They didn’t make any declarations on the pipeline.”
The Americans also met executives from the energy industry and Hydro-Quebec president Thierry Vandal. The executives wouldn’t comment to reporters outside the U.S. Embassy.
The meetings with environmentalists and First Nations followed a Wednesday night dinner for Pelosi, Environment Minister Jim Prentice and the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec.
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said he knows one dinner is not going to change the minds of Americans when it comes to the oilsands.
But he said his audience with Pelosi didn’t hurt the province’s efforts to sell southern lawmakers on the controversial energy source.
Stelmach said Alberta’s oilsands were the focus of the dinner meeting. He added he was most impressed when Pelosi said that the Americans are trying to reduce their dependency on oil from foreign countries, but didn’t include Canada in that group.
“She said we have a goal and that is to reduce dependency on foreign oil, but she was very quick to say — not Canada,” Stelmach said.
“She didn’t consider Canada to be foreign oil, so that was a positive statement and again that’s why I think she asked a number of questions with respect to our ability to supply.”
Pelosi, who has often voted against big-oil interests, spoke in equally positive tones about the meeting.
In a statement released Wednesday night, she said the talk “confirmed that the United States and Canada share a strong commitment to addressing climate change and energy security.”
“We share much more than a border, and with respect to our energy future, we are in the same boat,” Pelosi said.
Although Alberta officials have often met prominent American politicians, including former vice-president Dick Cheney, this week is the first time they’ve met Pelosi.
But she may soon be out of a job. Polls show the Republicans leading the Democrats with the U.S. mid-term election less than two months away. Pelosi would have to give up the Speaker’s chair if the Republicans gain control of the House.
Stelmach said it was still worthwhile to meet with Pelosi, even if she is no longer Speaker in a few months.
“I can tell you, never pass up an opportunity to sit down with the Speaker of the assembly to keep advancing Alberta’s interests,” he said.
“There may be changes in the mid-term election, but that does not mean that we give up this opportunity, and if there are significant changes again, more new people to meet, more opportunity to speak to newly elected members.”
On Friday, Pelosi was scheduled to attend the G8 Speakers’ Conference hosted by House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken. The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, will also attend.