Juno News - November 10, 2025Carney calls pipelines “BORING”
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Summary
While Prime Minister Mark Carney is getting tired of being asked about building energy pipelines, insisting his government is on it, he dismissed a question about pipelines as, boring. In a series of incoherent starts and stops, Carney appeared exasperated, having to deal with the issue.
Transcript
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While Prime Minister Mark Carney is getting tired of being asked about
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building energy pipelines, insisting his government is on it.
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And at an event Thursday at the Canadian Club in Toronto,
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he dismissed a question about pipelines as, quote, boring.
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Carney appeared exasperated, having to deal with the issue.
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One of my questions was, is this pipeline going to come?
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It's not actually for a big part of the country.
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It is because it's, look, it's, don't worry, we're on it.
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Erica Barutis is going to be joining us to deal with that one a little later on in the
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But as you heard there, I mean, in his view, at least he said it during that interview,
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that he thinks tech jobs will have a much bigger impact on the economy, on productivity
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What he did not mention, or maybe didn't know, is that energy is the single most critical
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part of any rollout of intelligence infrastructure, including AI data centers.
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Maybe he finds that boring too, but it takes a huge amount of energy to power these projects.
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The likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Meta together have recently signed contracts
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for 50 gigawatts of new power by 2030, more than the entire installed capacity of the country
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Increased oil production is already one of the fastest and cheapest power, cheapest types
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What we don't have, sadly, is the infrastructure to fully exploit those resources.
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Again, maybe that's too boring for the prime minister to consider.
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Meantime, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whom Carney says is on line one, whatever that
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means, says a deal with the feds is a work in progress.
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Are you becoming less optimistic about getting a new pipeline deal done in light of the recent
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I'm still working with the federal government to see if we can come up with a memorandum
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of understanding so that we can get a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets, as well as the
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Pathways Project, as well as remove some of the bad laws that will allow for that investment
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So I hope to have more to say next week before a great cup.
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Smith is looking for a major pipeline agreement with the feds to fast track a new oil pipeline
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There is still some fallout to be seen from the defection of former conservative Chris
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Dantremont, who joined the liberals just last week.
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Dantremont says he was encouraged to make the jump after meeting with Prime Minister Carney,
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but says getting yelled at by conservative Andrew Scheer sealed the deal.
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This has been a thought for a long time, you know, basically from the election, you know,
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hearing from longtime supporters that wouldn't support me anymore because of the leadership
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So, you know, I've been thinking about it a lot.
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And, you know, I think people saw that I wasn't being utilized within my party and they were
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And when I had that meeting with the Prime Minister, because I really hadn't had the
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So, you know, that did help a lot in making it clearer of what I wanted to do.
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But I tell you what really made it, what sealed the deal is when I got yelled at when this
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Well, it was only last April during the election campaign that Dantremont was very critical
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He was very much in favor of the Conservative one.
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Anyway, for all the criticism that Pierre Polyev has been under since Dantremont's departure,
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the new poll suggests the party is going to do well or would do better with him at the
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The survey looked at how the party would perform with different leaders in a hypothetical election.
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Polyev was the top choice, defeating former Prime Minister Harper, Doug Ford, Jason Kenney,
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So you heard this, frankly, rather odd clip from the prime minister who was asked about
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Clearly, there's an element of exasperation here.
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You know, he stumbled around wondering how to respond and finally came up with, well,
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And it doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence.
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I mean, if you're in the energy sector, if you're looking for a way to move Canada forward
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on this file, that answer does not exactly inspire a whole lot of confidence, does it?
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I mean, to say that one of the leading economic drivers of our country and the potential to
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be the superpower that he campaigned on is boring and not something this room wants to talk about,
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But it sends even a greater message to, you know, Western Canada, where we've been talking
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And I think there was a lot of hope that under Carney that might be heard, but it didn't
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really seem after that comment that he's been listening to what's been said and the message
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about our energy sector that's been conveyed time and time again.
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And then he said something cryptic, like, well, there'll be an announcement, some kind
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So that tells me that it may not be the announcement that Danielle Smith and many other Canadians
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Yeah, he definitely started off, well, well, it's boring.
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And then it was like, well, we got something like this.
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I mean, until he says we're not building a pipeline, I will be hopeful because I do think
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that looking at the budget that was tabled last week, the amount of revenue that they
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need to bring in to make this even at all sustainable, the private investment that they've
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kind of doubled downed on without creating an environment that is friendly to the private
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He's got a lot of work to do to be able to even make this $78 billion deficit work.
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So I'll be, I'll hold my breath until we hear no, but I think you're going to continue
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to see some of the premiers, as we saw Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta say, we're going to build
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So if he doesn't want it, he can get out of the way.
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Yeah, I think the fact that he called it boring suggests to me that he's tired of answering
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He's tired of being asked about it everywhere he goes, almost.
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He gets asked his questions about, you know, when are we going to have a pipeline and when
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And he's, to me, he says, you know, I've had enough, throws up his hands and doesn't
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But maybe people need to continue asking him until we get some kind of an announcement,
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The other part of this that troubles me a little bit is that he seems to have suggested,
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well, you know, we're going to do a lot better in terms of our productivity if we invest heavily
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in the rollout of these AI networks and data entry, data collection networks, as if one is
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I mean, he didn't seem to mention that energy is like the most important part of any rollout
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of intelligence infrastructure, including AI centers.
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And, you know, it makes me wonder if he's aware of that and if he is aware of it, why
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wouldn't he see the two working in tandem rather than saying, well, this one is better than
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I mean, I thought he was smarter than Trudeau, but it seems to me that maybe he doesn't understand
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how various industries besides the finance sector works, because to be able to have that
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capacity on a grid system requires oil and gas.
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It requires other sources of electricity, and it's not going to run on wind and solar.
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But if you're trying to get anything moving in the AI space, I mean, one of the biggest places
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that uses AI is our natural resources or our energy sector.
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And so it seemed, again, I hate saying out of touch because he hasn't even been there long
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enough to be out of touch, but apparently he's making it up for lost time, that it's really
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seeming like he doesn't realize that if we're going to be this energy superpower, which he
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campaigned on, that you can't only be one resource.
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And it seems to me like he's really focused on the big, sexy topic of AI and not thinking
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about the impact it has and the trickle-down effect to industry and consumers.
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Yeah, it just seems that any promises that he has made in that regard, and when it comes
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to pipelines and building out the resource sector, it's always around this sense of trepidation.
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You know, like he's doing it almost against his will, you know, like, I'll get around
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Like, that's why I'm suggesting that there's a real lack of confidence.
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I mean, if I was in Alberta and I was thinking, looking for some kind of signal, I wouldn't
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So what do you suppose the brain trust is thinking now in Alberta?
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They talk about Danielle Smith and so forth, the premier.
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I mean, she said that they're working on this project with the feds.
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You know, there's this sense that there will be some trade-offs in terms of commitments
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You know, is it possible that this is going to be completely underwhelming when we finally
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Well, should we not get an announcement, I don't think the dial of Alberta, the message
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It will be actually probably even more relentless.
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Now, I think if there's no project to come forward, they've talked about natural gas being
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probably the first most feasible as it's kind of the from the Liberals recognized as,
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And so, you know, I don't think Danielle Smith's message is going to change to Ottawa.
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We need more, you know, traditional energy being oil and gas.
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And there's multiple places, either south, north or west, north or east that we can get
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And so I think that there is a big expectation.
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They keep batting around by Grey Cup, which is very Canadian of us.
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Now, the odd thing through all of this is the one project that looks to be the most feasible
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would be Keystone and going now relying after this whole elbows up campaign, relying on the
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United States for to get our pipeline and our energy to market.
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So, I mean, it's I think that would hurt Kearney a lot.
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But as an Alberta girl, I'm all for getting our energy sector out and on boats from any
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I mean, Keystone was canceled by the Americans.
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I think it was day one of Joe Biden's administration.
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Of course, there was that whole kabuki theater during the Obama administration in which it
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went back and forth between the Harper government at the time and Obama.
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And then it had the plug pulled out of it by Biden.
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So, you know, it'll be interesting to see because I think Trump is all in on this.
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So where is the holdup here in terms of Keystone?
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Like they've the challenge was the direction in Keystone that has all been reassessed.
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It's essentially for Kearney and Trump to come to an agreement.
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Now, again, I don't think that maybe the stipulations that Kearney is going to put on the private
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sector companies and the mandates he's going to try and give to the premiers on, like you
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talked about, net zero carbon capture, et cetera, will be the same on that he would give to
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So wherever we can go, I just think that if we're truly going to be this independent
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economy, we need to look to our own borders, not just the South.
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Like that wouldn't be a checkbox that shows the sustainability and longevity of our own
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However, I'll take the revenue where we can we can get it.
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And the one thing that I don't think Mark Kearney understands is actually all of the clean tech,
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clean energy regulations, carbon capture, additional projects that Alberta already puts
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in place with kind which myth busts a lot of his criticism for this industry.
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And I don't know if it's his him or his caucus, but there's somewhere along this line that's
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stopping these projects, even though they really could use the Constitution to their
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benefit and force something or change Bill C-46, the tanker ban.
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I think that when it comes back to your question of who's stopping all of this, the buck is
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And I guess the rest of the premiers and everyone that can tell them to keep moving forward will
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have to go about that if we don't hear something by Grey Cup.
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I mean, is her political future now wrapped up in this agreement?
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Because of course, she's also under pressure from the independence crowd.
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And so she seems to be caught in the middle, right?
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There's a lot of pressures on her among them to deal with the feds, which is, you know,
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hard enough as it is, but then to also placate people at home or, you know, sick and tired
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of this back and forth that has gone nowhere and are thinking, you know, we got like one
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foot out of the, out of Confederation, you know, a difficult time for her.
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It is, but I don't think she's losing more sleep than Mark Carney is in navigating all
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She, in every Premier in Alberta, regardless of ideology, Rachel Notley even did it, was
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It is politically beneficial to challenge Ottawa as an Alberta Premier.
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I think she's given herself through her communication, as well as how strong she's pushed Ottawa, to
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give herself more runway because she's proposed, I think about three different opportunities
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And if they say no, I think again, we might all end up with just Keystone, but I still
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think that that would be a win for her and the province of Alberta.
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So she is in a little bit of a sticky situation, given that that, like if there's no pipeline,
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I think we'll see a little bit of a resurgence of the separation movement.
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But even then, I think Albertans across the board, regardless of if they're conservative
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or not, have actually appreciated and polls suggest that appreciate how hard she's been
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Because in Alberta, we know how environmentally sound our production is.
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And even with the removal of emissions cap, we can still guarantee the carbon capture that
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Well, I guess the big get would be another pipeline to Tidewater, right?
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You know, a shorter, like a Northern Gateway type of line.
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And to what degree will BC's ongoing intransigence on that file weigh in on all of this?
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Yeah, I mean, I would love if that was the announcement to come.
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I'm not sure that that is going to be what we'll see from this prime minister.
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I mean, he's been dancing, trying to secure a majority, et cetera.
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I think if we can hold that minority, there's better chance in his timeline or in even the
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Alberta timeline until the next election to be able to really push for that.
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So do I think 2025 is the year that we might get a pipeline announced?
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However, I do think that there is some runway to continue to advocate.
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And again, the power of the premiers and those first ministers coming together is something
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And I think we're seeing more of that than ever.
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How much frustration is there amongst Albertans as they look towards Eastern Canada and continue
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to see people who are, I want to say, impartial or don't care or don't get or even openly hostile
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like you see amongst some of the politicians that go back towards, you know, Alberta's aspirations?
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It's almost like they don't understand that so much of the transfer payments East, you know,
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ends up coming and generated from the oil sector.
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You know, is that an ongoing issue or have Albertans sort of thrown up their hands and
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Oh, I definitely don't ever think we'll say we don't care because it is very frustrating.
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I mean, you have facts and figures and is a little bit rich for Quebec to say that when
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the equalization formula is very much in their favor and they're able to run balanced budgets,
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even though they're not actually because of the subsidies that they're getting from other
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So it is very frustrating as an Albertan that you can say the same consistent message for
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Even when you're proving the environmental pushback, you're proving the economic feasibility
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You're proving all of these things that, and the world's desire for more oil and gas, like
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And so again, I think that we are seeing though more of a band of that in Ontario, I think has
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actually started to really realize the need for a pipeline.
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And so Quebec, I think will always have its unique case or its unique position in our country.
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But if Ontario can get on board and that's something we can look at, I truly believe we can get
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Erika Barutis, thank you so much for coming on the show.