Les enjeux de la politique énergétique canadienne des années quatre-vingt

Andre Plourde

L'Actualité Economique, 1990, vol. 66, issue 4, 381-402

Abstract: The first half of the 1980s was marked by bitter federal-provincial conflicts over the distribution of energy revenues. It is often argued that the introduction of the National Energy Program in October 1980 ushered in a period where the federal government's vision of an equitable distribution of energy revenues was paramount. OnIy with the Western Accord of March 1985, the argument goes, did the views propounded by the governments of the producing provinces gain ascendency. This paper suggests that such an argument ignores the role played by fiscal equalization. Once equalization is taken into consideration, it is clear that the switch from the federal vision of energy resources as a "national heritage" to the "provincial rights" approach proposed by the producing provinces had occurred by mid-1982. The federal government's attempts to bring about a more pronounced redistribution of the benefits generated by the exploitation of oil and gas reserves are thus shown to have been abandoned prior to the signing of the Western Accord. De virulents conflits concernant la distribution des bénéfices générés par l’exploitation et la mise en marché du pétrole et du gaz naturel ont opposé le fédéral aux gouvernements des provinces productrices durant la première moitié des années quatre-vingt. Cet article décrit les principaux mécanismes redistributifs utilisés par le fédéral (le contrôle des prix, la fiscalité et la péréquation). Il en ressort que l’effort redistributif entrepris par le Programme énergétique national d’octobre 1980 a été de courte durée. En effet, il est démontré que le gouvernement fédéral avait fait marche arrière sur tous les fronts avant la fin du premier semestre de 1982, bien avant de conclure, avec les provinces productrices, l’Accord de l’ouest en mars 1985.

Date: 1990
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Working Paper: Les enjeux de la politique energetique canadienne des annees quatre-vingts (1990)
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