Juno News - ＂Alberta is demanding change,＂ Alberta's Environment Minister speaks with Candice Malcolm

00:00:00.000 So I am at the United Conservative Party Convention AGM in Calgary and I'm here with

00:00:09.420 Minister Nixon. Now, Minister Nixon, you just led a panel on the fair deal that Alberta's

00:00:14.100 wanting. Seems to me that the members are really in agreement and really want a lot of these

00:00:18.900 measures to go forward. So what are the next steps for you? What do you have to do to make

00:00:23.500 this a reality? Well, I think first off, what you saw here today was clear instructions from

00:00:28.080 the membership to government and to the Premier, that he's on the right track, that we need

00:00:33.540 to have a fair deal panel, which we do have in place looking at how we can get a better

00:00:37.000 deal in Confederation. And so we'll take that instructions and we'll go from here, empower

00:00:42.000 the fair deal panel that we have going across the province to be able to consult with Albertans

00:00:45.960 and look at solutions that they can bring forward to government here in the next few months.

00:00:49.740 And we're then going to take that to Ottawa and to the federal government and make clear

00:00:52.840 that there has to be changes. Alberta's demanding changes and we demand to be treated fairly

00:00:56.660 within Confederation. That's great. So, I mean, at the end of the day, though, it's still

00:01:00.920 Justin Trudeau, who's a prime minister and a liberal government out in Ottawa. What are

00:01:04.640 you going to do if they say no? At the end of the day, they hold the power, they can say

00:01:07.840 no. What would happen at that point? Well, Alberta is pretty important to the economy

00:01:11.780 of this country and Alberta is important to Canada. And I think Canadians from coast to

00:01:15.640 coast want Alberta to be part of Canada. And so I think the prime minister saying no

00:01:19.360 will be rejected by Canadians. So I don't think that he'll do that. We also have significant

00:01:23.060 pieces of leverage that we intend to use. And, you know, we hope that's not the case.

00:01:26.440 We hope that the prime minister and his government will cooperate with Alberta and recognize our

00:01:30.520 importance within Confederation. But if he says no, we will take the action that we need

00:01:34.900 to to be able to defend our citizens as this process is through.

00:01:38.340 Thank you so much. If you like what we're doing, head on over to TNC.news and subscribe

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Juno News - December 05, 2019