00:08:22.260Now, Rachel Notley had not been as far left as Jagmeet Singh on a number of issues, notably
00:08:27.980energy issues, but even she never wanted to sever these two things, whereas Nenshi is looking at
00:08:32.920the Jagmeet Singh NDP brand in Ottawa and saying, like, this is just not at all something that we
00:08:38.020want anything to do with. So I'll talk about that in a second, but I wanted to play the Mark
00:08:41.840Holland clip because this is Mark Holland explaining why the Liberals really lost in
00:08:46.700Toronto St. Paul's. Thank you very much. I will point out just the record. It was not hypothetical
00:08:52.280for 40,000 people in Toronto St. Paul's on Monday. They did actually make a decision.
00:08:57.600So let me take let me take the the first part of what you said, because you're right. People in
00:09:01.160St. Paul's made a decision and we're responding to that. But I I think that people in St. Paul's
00:09:05.540knew they weren't changing the government. They were saying we're upset at the world right now.
00:09:10.140People I knocked on those doors. I didn't hear anybody saying I love Pierre Polyev's plan for
00:09:14.880the country because he doesn't have one you know uh he's reflected the anger that exists in the
00:09:19.840world well well done you know where are people happy in the world right now it's a tough time
00:09:24.480to be alive as a human being um and you know so that that that was about frustration of being able
00:09:30.500to express it without changing governments and i understand that and that message is heard loud and
00:09:35.080clear and for terry dan and i like yeah we're gonna like dig deeper i'm gonna wake up in the
00:09:40.940morning and try to work harder and try to do more and try to meet the frustrations of those people
00:09:45.740with better effort and and clearer communication but you know i don't think saying that they made
00:09:52.040a decision about the kind of country or government they want is at all accurate
00:09:55.600people are just venting where else are be no one's happy people of course are unhappy it's like
00:10:03.640my goodness absolutely fascinating uh to me that he's so tone deaf it's basically now
00:10:10.180everyone's unhappy so he's doing the polyev thing that the liberals criticized him for doing of
00:10:14.960saying everything is broken in canada uh he's just oh yeah everyone's miserable of course they're
00:10:18.700all they're just venting everyone's just blowing off steam it's like the boys will be boys of
00:10:23.380political punditry following a by-election loss but to go back to the ndp for a moment what
00:10:28.920nahid nenshi is saying here is that the federal ndp is not at all not at all on board with what
00:10:37.380he thinks the NDP needs to be in Alberta. And I think a lot of people in the province realized
00:10:41.380that they had their, you know, dalliance, they had their mistake of Rachel Notley, they wanted
00:10:46.640to get away from that. And I think are probably going to take another 30 years before they do
00:10:51.380something so foolish again. And I think he realized that the only way to exist and to be
00:10:57.540successful, if that's at all possible, is to be a more moderate party. I mean, sure, take the NDP
00:11:02.580brand and resources and history and all of that. But the NDP brand itself in Alberta
00:11:08.960needs to be separate from the NDP brand federally. So where is that leaving you in the province of
00:11:16.760Alberta? Well, remember here that what they're looking at is an NDP federally that no longer
00:11:22.880wants to be the party of the working class. It no longer wants to be, I mean, Jack Layton,
00:11:27.580I feel like I owe Jack Layton an apology in a way, because I used to, as a young, rambunctious, right-leaning Canadian, see him as being this left-wing radical by virtue of leading the NDP.
00:11:38.380And now I would long for a Jack Layton to be running.
00:11:41.420I would long for a Thomas Mulcair to be running the NDP, because these folks at least had a solid understanding of the confines of political reality, of just reality in general.
00:11:52.780You know, Nikki Ashton today, who's one of the most far left members of Canadian politics and of the Parliament of Canada, had come out and she was doing this press conference with these self-loathing Jews at Independent Jewish Voices and saying we need to stop any charities that are putting money in towards, quote unquote, colonizing Palestinians.
00:12:13.260So she basically doesn't want any Canadian charities to give money that goes to Israel at all.
00:12:18.840And not the state of Israel, but, you know, just Israeli enterprise and Israeli humanitarian work.
00:12:33.700Because she's so committed to this colonizer, colonize-y dichotomy that she views everything from,
00:12:40.240she is not interested in dealing with reality.
00:12:42.380There are far too many NDPers right now who think the biggest threat to the world is no one recognizing their they, them, zim, zir pronouns and not perhaps mobilizing us labor.
00:12:54.760So, you know, if you're a blue collar union worker, the NDP no longer speaks to you.
00:12:59.160And this is one of the reasons that Pierre Polyev has had such success, because Jagmeet
00:13:03.520Singh, who again is a Rolex-wearing, Versace bag-toting, Bay Street lawyer, is not the
00:13:10.620working class representative in Ottawa.
00:14:25.240And they're saying, we need to unite the left.
00:14:26.760we need to bring the liberals and the NDP together. Otherwise, conservatives are going to win and
00:14:30.260they're panicked. And they think the alternative to that is basically a two-party system where you
00:14:34.680have the left-wing party, you have the right-wing party, and we're supposedly going to have a
00:14:39.860functioning system that works in that sense. But what I'm going to be fascinated to see is what
00:14:45.380happens in Alberta, because Alberta NDP members are going to get to vote on this. Nahed Nenshi
00:14:50.120is the leader. He had a large mandate. I think it was like 85% of the vote, just absolutely
00:14:55.120massive. And this was above like former cabinet ministers in that party. So he clearly has
00:15:01.420resonated with voters. I don't know if the members are going to support this push of his. And I don't
00:15:08.760know in what numbers, because if they don't, if they say, no, no, no, we're, we're new Democrats
00:15:12.420and we're happy to be aligned with the federal NDP, then fine power to them. I think they're
00:15:16.640relegated to the dustbin of history as basically an accidental government in the same way that Bob
00:15:22.120raised in Ontario was back in the, I guess, was it 1990, I think that election was, or 80, 88,
00:15:28.74089, I don't know, it was around then. But then you look at the other side, if they conversely
00:15:34.840vote to sever and vote to divorce, it's a huge rebuke of the federal NDP. If you have one of
00:15:41.720the most legitimate provincial new democratic parties, the Alberta NDP, saying to the federal
00:15:47.720NDP. We are just not that into you. So again, look, I think liberals need to have a very serious
00:15:54.600discussion about whether their leaders is representing them well at the federal level,
00:15:58.260but new Democrats really do. Because as I've said time and time again on this show,
00:16:02.660Jagmeet Singh could have been the most powerful player in Canadian politics for the last
00:16:07.940two years or so, the last two and a half years. He could have been tremendously,
00:16:12.920tremendously effective if he were a person that had a more solid head on his shoulders and knew
00:16:18.340what he was doing he could have wielded tremendous power but has chosen not to and still he could he
00:16:23.220could i mean better late than never he could if he wants force an election but then he would be
00:16:27.700resigned to accept that canadians don't particularly want him and i think the toronto st paul's by
00:16:32.300election is just as much a wake-up call for the ndp as it is for the liberals but as i said i
00:16:38.800wanted to do something very special on this show. I want to talk about, it'll start with Alberta
00:16:43.300versus Ottawa in a lot of ways, but if you're not from Alberta, I want you to pay attention because
00:16:48.500there's a bigger story here about how provinces can assert their own autonomy and assert their
00:16:54.260own sovereignty. And I think we've seen in the last year in particular, more and more provinces
00:16:59.840get a little bit more emboldened in this sense, not just on pushing on the parental rights
00:17:05.020discussions like we saw in New Brunswick and Alberta and Saskatchewan and for a moment in
00:17:09.520Ontario but pushing back against Ottawa's encroachment on provincial domain and provincial
00:17:15.080territorial sovereignty and just yesterday we spoke to Christine Van Gein from the Canadian
00:17:20.500Constitution Foundation about the federal course the federal court of appeal case going on this
00:17:26.040week as the government federally defends its plastics ban and you have provinces saying like
00:17:32.240it's not even about whether the ban is good or not you don't have the right to do this you don't
00:17:36.100have the right to snap your fingers and say this is a criminal law matter just because you don't
00:17:40.540want people to be able to use straws that aren't going to disintegrate within five seconds when
00:17:45.420they go out for lunch or dinner at a restaurant so one of the provinces that has been leading the
00:17:50.100way not just on pushing back against this but a number of other similar encroachments from the
00:17:54.160feds has been alberta and so much of this comes down to environmental policy i thought it would
00:17:59.120be great to do a deep dive with Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz. Minister, good to have
00:18:04.560you back on the show. Thanks for coming on today. Yeah, it's great to see you again. We've been
00:18:09.760trying to set this up for weeks and you're so busy because the federal government basically
00:18:14.540keeps giving you things that you need to fight them on. So I'm glad we were able to get a bit
00:18:18.380of time today. Just before we get into the plastics ban, I wanted to ask you about the budget because
00:18:24.340putting in the federal budget this ban on oil and gas companies touting their environmental records
00:18:31.920is i i think particularly disgraceful because you don't even really get to debate this policy
00:18:36.980in isolation uh you know i remember when people first started talking about it and they say oh
00:18:41.260bill c59 and you look up c59 and like well this has nothing to do with oil and gas this is a
00:18:45.760budget implementation bill but what the government is doing is is effectively what charlie angus was
00:18:50.960mocked for proposing a few weeks ago which is saying that oil and gas companies should be
00:18:55.320treated like tobacco companies effectively and banned from talking about what they're doing
00:19:00.500well explain what the effect of that would be in in your province but in canada generally
00:19:05.780yeah and you know i was actually just gonna joke it's it's a good thing that it took us a little
00:19:10.680bit longer to set up this interview because now we get to talk about bill c59 yeah now we have
00:19:15.480more material to work with oh my gosh it's it's honestly it is the topic that everybody wants to
00:19:21.580talk about and you know this week uh i had a meeting with the calgary chamber of commerce
00:19:26.480and a number of their members and just a round table and i can tell you that c59 was the topic
00:19:31.740of conversation and you're exactly right uh there wasn't a lot of conversation about it because it
00:19:36.300was snuck in there uh this as an amendment and when mp charlie angus raised essentially his private
00:19:45.180members motion I think people did they laughed it off like this isn't gonna be something that
00:19:49.980happens in Canada and uh that's exactly what this is this is a gag order not just on energy on you
00:19:57.880know any business that wants to talk about their uh environmental record uh and it is I think
00:20:03.540because of the the outrage that we've seen from some of the NGOs and I would say the more radical
00:20:09.060left this is exactly what they were trying to do with this amendment and so it really does put
00:20:15.080industry and businesses in a position where they're not able to talk about their their true
00:20:18.980record or their true facts um in the public without risk of massive fines 15 million dollars
00:20:25.560and obviously there are concerns around a percentage of of uh their revenues which is
00:20:31.400a massive risk for for industries but it's not just energy this is a major risk uh for agriculture
00:20:38.360i would say you know when we have a a federal environment minister that says you know we're
00:20:43.260going to build any more roads i think anybody in transportation should be highly concerned um but
00:20:48.940really this impacts any and all industries that are working to do the right thing for the environment
00:20:53.900that just a couple of of whether it be more folks on the more radical uh eco left uh or or certain
00:21:02.860end goes can bring these challenges forward just because they don't like uh the record that a
00:21:08.300company is sharing and uh you know i think when we look here in alberta we do we do tend to talk a
00:21:13.580lot about energy because we're very proud of our energy production here but the facts are that
00:21:18.700while production goes up to meet canadian and global demand for energy that that demand is
00:21:24.380rising every single day we're also proud of our environmental record that emissions uh intensity
00:21:30.940is going down so that's per barrel emissions um in the oil sense they've been down over 20
00:21:35.580percent. You know, when we look at our methane emissions, those have been reduced by 45%. We
00:21:40.880were able to do that three years ahead of schedule. We worked with industry. We took a different
00:21:45.920approach than the federal government. We saved industry $600 million as we worked to roll that
00:21:50.560out. Electricity emissions are down. And again, like overall emissions are down while demand and
00:21:58.300production rise. That is a success story. And that is a story that, you know, quite frankly,
00:22:03.780the Trudeau liberals, but I also say it's not just one person. This is the entire NDP liberal
00:22:09.140coalition that is seeking to shut down voices that don't fit the narrative that they believe in. And
00:22:15.480that is a problem. Like last week being in Washington, I was asked, do you not have
00:22:21.620a protection, a freedom of speech in your constitution? Like that's an embarrassing
00:22:28.180place to be as a country. And that should be really concerning for Canadians.
00:22:32.240Yeah, you're fielding questions as though you're, you know, some delegate from some like tin pot dictatorship. And that's the way that, you know, our allies to the south are looking at us here. And just to put this in context, Pathways Alliance, which is a group that I think, I mean, some energy advocates have always criticized Pathways Alliance for being not pro-energy enough, which is funny because it is a, you know, an industry representative group.
00:22:55.480They shut down their website because they don't believe that they will be compliant with C-59 because their whole thing is touting the environmental achievements of the oil and gas sector.
00:23:04.960And it's amazing because there isn't even in this a defense of truth, which in any other free speech case, you could always lean on the defense of truth.
00:23:14.100It's not even like these companies are given the benefit of the doubt in that sense with what the government is doing here, where if they can verify the claims, it's fine because no one is disputing the actual facts of it.
00:23:23.680They're just saying, I don't want oil and gas to tell a positive story.
00:23:42.420And look, we're very proud of our work on methane emissions reduction, but also our
00:23:46.520methodology for measuring and reporting that is more transparent than the vast majority
00:23:52.520of places around the world, we're proud of that record. And so, you know, of course, it wasn't
00:23:58.320just one group, it wasn't just pathways. But I mean, oil sands per barrel emissions intensity
00:24:03.380is down. So for every barrel that they're producing, those emissions have gone down
00:24:08.540by I believe it's 21% and more to come on that front. But it's not just them. I mean,
00:24:14.680the Business Council of Alberta, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers,
00:24:18.280The Chamber of Commerce, again, not just energy companies saying that this is problematic, but there was even a liberal appointed Trudeau appointed senator who said, look, we've got some issues here.
00:24:30.800We don't have enough information about how this is going to work to actually put this through.
00:24:36.100That said, I mean, they they've they rammed it through, obviously, the House and the Senate anyways.
00:24:41.700But because there's so much uncertainty right now about what this looks like, what this
00:24:46.340actually means for these businesses, what the process is going to be, you know, companies
00:24:50.540have investors, they have shareholders, there's, you know, a lot of uncertainty.
00:24:55.000And I mean, the government of Canada has come out and said, okay, now we're going to consult
00:24:58.420on maybe what that's going to look like.
00:25:00.280This has massive implications for our businesses in a variety of industries.
00:28:31.420You know, it doesn't it doesn't impact them like they don't have to follow it.
00:28:36.820And just to interject there for a moment, Minister, I recall when the Sovereignty Act was proposed, you had a lot of critics and academia from the Liberals that were saying it was Alberta that was doing the end run around the Constitution, when really it's the exact opposite.
00:28:48.840The Sovereignty Act is a response to the Feds doing end runs around the Constitution on a regular basis.
00:28:54.540Well, yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, I would say we definitely see it in plastics, but we also see it in policies like the emissions cap, the Impact Assessment Act. And so, you know, certainly with where the courts have come out on this plastics legislation and the Impact Assessment Act.
00:29:13.260I mean, I have some hope for where we're headed now, given that the courts have said, look, this is unreasonable and unconstitutional.
00:29:23.020You know, unfortunately, we have a federal environment minister who told me when I raised those rulings from the court.
00:29:29.760He said, you know, those aren't decisions. Those are just opinions, opinions of the highest courts in our country.
00:29:36.140sure. But, you know, then you have the complete and utter mixed messages coming from the federal
00:29:43.040liberals again, that, you know, you have, I think, you know, it was safe to say everybody was really
00:29:49.900excited to see Dow make a final investment decision for a petrochemical facility in Alberta.
00:29:55.260Minister Wilkinson and Freeland were there, you know, yay, we want to see this investment,
00:29:59.540we wanted it to come to Canada. And yet you have Minister Guibault bringing through this
00:30:03.220plastics legislation that creates so much uncertainty about that plastic circular economy,
00:30:08.820that's a problem. That is completely a contradictory message. And that plastics
00:30:13.960legislation, you know, I mean, we were obviously very vocal against it alongside a number of the
00:30:20.800colleagues and other, or sorry, a number of the companies and other provinces. We're happy to
00:30:25.760see that investment come here. We want to see a plastic circular economy. That's actually good.
00:30:30.680When people are recycling and we can take plastic waste and turn it into new materials, that's actually an environmental win.
00:30:38.960And that is what is at risk with Stephen Guibo's plastics legislation.
00:30:43.480And so that's where, again, you know, it's completely ideological and ignores common sense and the reality of what's actually happening out here.
00:30:52.420And I think that's where you hear the frustration from people across the country, but also provinces and, of course, from the business community that we're seeing.
00:31:02.020Speaking of Minister Gilboa, one of the things that you mentioned and goes in a lot of these eco radicals before.
00:31:08.400I mean, I don't know if they've ever had one of them as the environment minister, which I think very much applies to Gilboa,
00:31:15.300given his longstanding track record as an activist and protester and one who was criminally arrested for his displays.
00:31:22.720But you've called and the premier has called for him to be fired.
00:31:26.500So obviously that doesn't suggest that there's a rosy relationship that you have.
00:31:31.640But do you actually speak to him? Do you have a relationship with him?
00:31:35.220And have you had any success with him on any file?
00:31:38.440You know, I would say, of course, we have conversations and I imagine we'll be meeting again this summer.
00:31:43.420You know, I have talked publicly about our meeting, you know, when we were at COP and Minister Yebo was unwilling to share information on the oil and gas emissions cap, that when I asked for details on that cap, his response was that I should sign an NDA and that he couldn't actually give me details of something that was about to be announced 48 hours later.
00:32:04.640that is not that is not how this federal provincial relationship is supposed to function
00:32:11.720and again like when you have this federal government that is just so very utterly and
00:32:18.180completely disregarding the laws of our country we have no choice but to defend ourselves that said
00:32:24.500we still have to have conversations about areas where there is overlap and you know I think the
00:32:30.420challenge is that you know you have a conversation um we view the world i think in in very different
00:32:37.860ways and ultimately we have despite the fact that we have provided data and i'll use clean electricity
00:32:44.420but the oil and gas emissions cap would be the same the work on methane would be the same that
00:32:49.540we have officials in in both of our departments working to share information to um you know look
00:32:56.580at data that you know what do we actually know uh look at socioeconomic impacts of these proposed
00:33:02.180policies the problem is is we still have a minister that says okay well sure those are
00:33:08.100your numbers but i'm going to make this decision anyways uh regardless of job impacts economic
00:33:13.540impacts um very real uh environmental impacts i would say uh in those cases so we continue to meet
00:33:20.180we we have discussions is there any area where you know we've come to agreement on um you know
00:33:26.180I would say we had a relatively positive conversation about oil sands mine water. We're
00:33:31.820very committed to addressing those concerns. I also raised concerns I had with politicians,
00:33:39.560I would say, making a political spectacle of something like water, which impacts people
00:33:44.480they're really concerned about. We have some of the safest, highest quality drinking water
00:33:49.460in the country in these areas. And so, you know, I did ask for him to ensure that he's not
00:33:56.540sharing misinformation and being honest and open with communities while we have conversations
00:34:01.220about some of the bigger issues we need to tackle. You know, on, I would say maybe some
00:34:08.120issues around drought, we had some good conversations where we really were keeping
00:34:13.460the federal government up to speed on the situation and what things were looking like here.
00:34:17.620But again, I mean, you know, we have a Minister of Environment who is not, I would say it's not even a partisan thing. It's that he is an environmental activist, and he is making decisions that put his ideology ahead of the well-being of Albertans and Canadians that we were respectively elected to represent. And that, I think, is bad for democracy.
00:34:39.740Yeah. And on the big picture issues, you don't have an ally in Ottawa. And just to go back to the federalist relationship here, ideally, the federal government, the national government and provinces are supposed to be partners rather than provinces being subordinated to the federal government.
00:34:56.480And that's why, you know, the federal government doesn't have a veto over provincial laws.
00:35:02.500And what was so tremendous about this is that the federal government has often acted, this current one, and past ones as well, as though they're really the father, if you will.
00:35:14.140And, you know, they're the ones that get to, you know, parent the provinces.
00:35:16.880And they do it in a very disingenuous way.
00:35:19.120I mean, just as recently as a few weeks ago, the government was saying, no, no, no, the emissions cap isn't going to cut oil and gas production.
00:35:24.680And then I think it was just last week, you get a report from Deloitte saying, oh, well, actually, as everyone but the federal government acknowledged, yes, it will.
00:35:32.480Yeah. And that's not the first report. I mean, the Deloitte report.
00:35:36.500It's the third report. And so, you know, again, and I mean, I've been asking Minister Kibo, do some analysis.
00:35:44.160Do you have any economic or socioeconomic analysis on the impacts of these policies that you're bringing through?
00:35:51.060And, you know, he has discredited the analysis that we have provided, that others have provided, like SNP and the work that CAP, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, had done, which really covers more the conventional side.
00:36:07.500Again, there have been others. And, you know, his response is, well, you know, that that doesn't really take in. We haven't even rolled out what our policy is going to be. So that doesn't take into account, you know, where we're going to set this cap at.
00:36:21.060I mean, come on, they've been talking about what this emissions cap is going to look like.
00:36:26.960I mean, that also supports our concern that they haven't shared any information.
00:36:32.300They're not having real conversations with either provinces or industry.
00:36:37.420And, you know, again, like if you're going to have a conversation, you have to have the
00:36:43.040conversation with the area that has jurisdiction, which is the provinces, whether that be on
00:36:47.080clean electricity regulations, where we have the responsibility to ensure that our residents have
00:36:53.120access to safe, affordable, reliable electricity. Same thing on an oil and gas emissions cap. This
00:36:58.860will impact production. There is absolutely no question that as global demand continues to rise,
00:37:05.100we want to meet that demand with our environmentally responsible, I would say,
00:37:10.320socially responsibly produced energy. We want to meet those demands. We're going to continue to do
00:37:16.560that and at some point your emissions cap is without question going to impact production
00:37:21.920and so i think you know it and canadians are concerned i mean we see it across the country
00:37:27.120you see it a lot when it's in relation to the carbon tax that i think people right across canada
00:37:34.000see that this government has ignored the very real concerns and basic needs of canadians and
00:37:40.960have put this environment environmental ideology at the forefront and i i think you know many have
00:37:47.280said this is uh one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation since the national energy program
00:37:52.880i mean uh that's that's big this has massive impacts on on us as a country and you know at
00:37:59.680the beginning we talked a little bit about me being in washington and the trade relationship
00:38:04.080that we have with the us i mean we provide the us with almost 60 of their oil imports
00:38:10.100So not only are we meeting Canadians' needs, we're supporting other major countries' needs.
00:38:16.000You know, that energy should come from us.
00:38:17.760And if it's not coming from us, it's coming from China, India, Russia, places with fewer environmental regulations.
00:38:26.560Again, emissions, air moves, emissions are shared.
00:38:30.580It has the exact opposite impact on global emissions.
00:38:36.260Yeah, I think you're right about that. And I would also point out that it's amazing how the government in Canada never wants to talk about the global picture. I mean, if you just look at the sheer numbers, Canada's emissions are what, you know, 1.4% of global emissions thereabouts.
00:38:52.400And the reality is you have in China new coal plants being open.
00:38:56.580You have in India, the just transition that we have shoved down our industry and our throats in Canada is basically non-existent.
00:39:05.280And, you know, I remember a few years back or two years ago, I spoke to India's petroleum minister and because he had been on a panel on at a global conference in Davos.
00:39:15.320And he was talking about the need to accelerate the transition.
00:39:17.960And I asked him on the street after when I ran into him, he said, oh, yeah, I just sort of said that in the room.
00:39:22.140that's not practical here. So, you know, you have all these other countries that are the beneficiary
00:39:26.360of Canada, really taking aim at its energy sector. And, you know, the global emissions picture is not
00:39:33.160being affected by anything Canada is doing. And even Canadian emissions are not being affected
00:39:37.080by these things like the carbon tax, like emissions have gone up. Yeah, you know, I would say
00:39:43.280that's where when we look at our emissions reduction goals as a province, we are hitting
00:39:48.840our targets. Well, production continues to rise. We have decided to take an approach where we work
00:39:55.940with industry to say, look, what technology exists? What's reasonable? How do we do things
00:40:01.120better? How do we do things smarter? How can we change our policies, but still incentivize
00:40:05.740industry to do the right thing for the environment? On the flip side, you have Canada just taking a
00:40:13.740punitive approach, which again, you're exactly right. I mean, it drives investment out. It also
00:40:21.080drives the production of energy out to other countries. And you're right. Then at the point
00:40:28.220where we look at our little piece of the emissions pie, we could shut down all of our major industries,
00:40:33.100all of them, not just the energy industry. And that emissions reduction space would be eaten up
00:40:38.740in a very short amount of time by those other countries and that other type of development,
00:40:42.860like coal like what we've seen over the last couple of years and so um you know i think this
00:40:48.300is really where canadians want to see a government that is reasonable that shows common sense um that
00:40:55.340isn't really just driven by uh an ideological activist perspective and you know i think when
00:41:03.420it comes to these policies the federal government's approach is just deny deny deny like let's not
00:41:07.980talk about it like canadians want to talk about the carbon tax and we have a federal government
00:41:12.620who just essentially closes their ears and said,
00:41:15.340yeah, we're not going to listen to that.
00:41:40.120And I guess I'll compound this question and ask it in two parts here.
00:41:44.380Number one, is there a sense that this is just a Gilbo issue or is it a liberal issue or is it an Ottawa issue?
00:41:53.500And you're not convinced that, you know, even if there was a change in government, that these problems would go away.
00:41:57.640And and beyond then, what would you like to see? What would you like to see moving forward?
00:42:01.500You know, I mean, I say all of the time, I mean, as a conservative MLA in Alberta, I do believe that a change in government would solve a lot of problems because we would have a common sense government that cares about, I would say, the needs of everyday Canadians, especially when it comes to affordable and reliable, secure energy.
00:42:28.500I mean, energy security for our country and for North America is very important. And so
00:42:34.620these are things that, again, this federal liberal NDP coalition has completely ignored.
00:42:40.200And that kind of answers your first question, which do I think this is a Gibbo issue?
00:42:45.400Not solely. Absolutely not. Do I think it's just a Trudeau issue? No, because despite the fact that
00:42:50.420they're driving this agenda, there's an entire cabinet that's just going along with it.
00:42:55.280And so, you know, I think that this just shows that the entire liberal NDP coalition is so wildly out of touch.
00:43:02.920You know, they say they care about affordability, yet they want to support the carbon tax.
00:43:07.560You know, they say that, you know, they're listening to everyday Canadians.
00:43:11.440You know what? Canadians really do care about having access to affordable, reliable electricity and energy.
00:43:17.000They do. I can tell you they care about it in the middle of summer when it is hot and they need an air conditioner.
00:43:22.240I can tell you that they care about it in the winter when, you know, baseload capacity is a is a very real concern in some provinces.
00:43:30.260You know, we saw that here in Alberta in January. Right.
00:43:34.680You know, we can't live off of solar and wind when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.
00:43:42.560So, you know, I think that this is a this is a bigger issue than just one or two people.
00:43:48.080This is a complete disregard of everyday Canadians by the Liberal NDP coalition.
00:43:54.380It just happens to be championed by Stephen Guibault and Justin Trudeau right now.
00:44:00.100Well, let me just ask you briefly, because I was talking about it before.
00:44:03.800We had the new NDP leader in your province, Nahed Nenshi, say that he thinks they need a bit of a divorce from the federal NDP.
00:44:11.700Do you think that will be enough to have the NDP in Alberta taken a bit more seriously by voters?
00:44:16.400You know what, I'll tell you this, like as a Alberta MLA, when I was door knocking, the number one thing that I heard is, is how do we see a change in federal government? Like enough of Justin Trudeau, enough of the liberals. And I mean, come on, Nahed Nenshi is Justin Trudeau's choice for NDP leadership here in Alberta.
00:44:39.380you know, I think we've seen that relationship over the last number of years. And so, you know,
00:44:45.740whether or not they are linked through their bylaws and constitution as a party to the
00:44:51.800to the federal NDP or not, make no mistake, Nenshi is very much linked in with the federal liberals.
00:44:59.240And that's something that I don't think Albertans want to have anything to do with right now.
00:45:03.700All right, fair enough. Environment Minister in Alberta, Rebecca Schultz,