00:00:00.000Alberta Premier Danielle Smith defended her upcoming chat with The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro after Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi tried to claim she was meeting with a, quote, extremist.
00:00:22.260The provinces also criticized the Liberals' electricity regulations, saying that Alberta will not comply.
00:00:28.420Smith similarly disproved one of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claims when he said there was no viable business case for LNG agreements after she struck a deal with Japan.
00:00:40.100Also on the show today, we'll be looking at two different statements made by the provincial government, one on the premiers' meeting on tariffs and the other on a parliamentary budget officer report on the federal emissions cap.
00:00:52.140All that and more on the Alberta Roundup today. I'm your host, Isaac Lamoureux. Let's get the show on the road.
00:00:57.840So hopping into that Ben Shapiro story, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said that her fireside chat with him will help bring Canada's message to an engaged U.S. audience as Canada bears the economic brunt of U.S. tariffs.
00:01:11.960Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi published his accusations in a release on Monday where he referred to Shapiro as far right.
00:01:19.440A spokesperson for Smith told me that the Premier was invited to a fireside chat with Shapiro hosted by PragerU in Florida at the end of March.
00:01:28.580Her itinerary is not yet finalized and this event is the only one currently scheduled for her trip to Florida.
00:02:32.120Those who call themselves anti-Zionists in effect call for the destruction, whether by force or diplomacy,
00:02:38.840of a U.N. member state and of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
00:02:44.760Advocating an end to the world's only Jewish state is no less than a denial of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.
00:02:52.000The CBC ombudsman previously deemed it fair to link Ben Shapiro to extremists after the state broadcaster linked him to far-right extremism.
00:03:00.520The ruling came after Shapiro defended himself publicly against the CBC.
00:03:05.460Let me know in the comments what you think about the Alberta NDP aligning themselves with a group using this kind of language,
00:03:11.860and what you think of Nenshi's critique of Shapiro, especially in light of his distaste for the tariffs.
00:03:17.060Now switching to a different provincial story, Alberta's Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz and Affordability Minister Nathan Newdorf issued a joint statement on Thursday.
00:03:26.920The statement followed a new report from the Alberta Electric System Operator,
00:03:40.600which showed that the clean electricity regulations would cost Albertans $30 billion between 2024 and 2049.
00:03:47.720The report also predicts that between 2035 and 2050, electricity costs will rise an additional 35% across the board due to the regulations.
00:03:58.200The Liberals finalized the clean electricity regulations in December 2024.
00:04:02.820The regulations set limits on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-powered electricity generation starting in 2035 to achieve a net-zero electricity grid by 2050.
00:04:13.960The system operator concluded that the regulations threaten the reliability of Alberta's grid, increase costs, and fail to reduce carbon emissions meaningfully.
00:04:43.420As a result, by 2038, the CER would make Alberta's electricity system more than 100 times less reliable than the province's supply adequacy standard.
00:04:52.500Power shortages are predicted in the report by the mid-2030s if the regulations proceed.
00:04:58.120Albertan officials said they've already reduced electricity emissions by 59% since 2005.
00:05:04.460They said this was done without the regulations and that emissions will continue to decrease without federal interference.
00:05:12.140It's clear the federal government's new regulations aren't actually about reducing emissions.
00:05:16.560Just like with the carbon tax, the real goal is punishing businesses, provinces, and families for using natural gas for reliable, dispatchable power.
00:05:25.080The report concluded that the regulations would result in significant risk to the grid with little to no actual benefit.
00:05:31.020The province's system operator wrote to the Liberals during the consultation process, warning them about the regulations.
00:05:36.700Electricity Canada also expressed profound concerns about how the regulations would endanger both affordability and reliability nationwide.
00:05:46.240Alberta Premier Daniel Smith previously invoked the Sovereignty Within the United Canada Act to shield the province from the electricity regulations.
00:05:53.820The initial version of the federal regulations formerly proposed a net-zero power grid by 2035.
00:06:00.400Despite delaying the timeline to 2050, Alberta previously said it was still unconstitutional and that any such regulations would be challenged in court.
00:06:09.360Schultz and Neudorf said it's time to reverse course instead of continuing down the path of costly and punitive policies.
00:06:17.660Someone must fix the mess that Ottawa has made before it's too late.
00:06:21.600The next federal government needs to scrap these dangerous regulations and start listening to common sense.
00:06:27.260Now hopping back to the Premier, she secured a major liquefied natural gas deal with Japan,
00:06:32.900disproving former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's previous claim that there was no viable business case for such agreements.
00:06:39.260Smith and Ichiro Takahara, chairman and CEO of the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security,
00:06:46.280met on Tuesday and signed a Memorandum of Understanding between their respective governments.
00:06:51.480The new agreement reaffirmed Alberta's commitment to working with Japan to develop oil, natural gas, hydrogen, and ammonia resources.
00:06:59.420While discussing a potential LNG deal with Germany, Trudeau had previously said that there is no business case for such an agreement.
00:07:06.440Smith revealed that the project will move forward with implementing carbon capture and storage technology while utilizing other emission-reducing measures.
00:07:14.900The Alberta government expects the agreement to generate jobs for Albertans as well as attract outside investment to Alberta.
00:07:21.180Takahara said that the deal will, quote,
00:07:23.660Further deepen its cooperative relationship with the province of Alberta and contribute to the stable supply of energy and resources to Japan
00:07:30.860and the realization of a carbon-neutral society.
00:07:33.860Alberta and Japan first signed a memorandum in 2017 when the organization was known as the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation.
00:07:45.980Bilateral trade between Alberta and Japan totaled more than $3 billion last year,
00:07:50.660making Japan the province's third-largest export market at almost $2.7 billion going from Alberta to Japan,
00:07:57.120nearly $1 billion of which was energy exports.
00:08:00.140Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean said Alberta's latest commitment will allow Alberta to supply Japan with the most ethically-produced resources in the world.
00:08:08.820Jean said in a Tuesday statement, quote,
00:08:10.980We have an opportunity to supply Japan with the most ethically-produced oil and gas on the planet to aid in their economy
00:08:17.440and shift to lower-carbon electricity production while we continue to grow our international energy exports.
00:08:23.820Sticking with energy, the Premier and Schultz released a joint statement after a parliamentary budget officer analysis dropped on Wednesday,
00:08:31.820highlighting that the oil and gas emissions cap would reduce Canada's nominal GDP by $20.5 billion by 2032,
00:08:39.520along with wiping 54,400 jobs off the map.
00:08:43.380The statement highlighted that the PBO's report confirmed that the oil and gas emissions cap would cut oil and gas production by 5%,
00:12:54.940Yeah, so I wanted to highlight this one because it really got me thinking.
00:13:06.580You're right that if we joined the US, we would probably even have less of a voice due to our small population in regard to other states.
00:13:13.080But I think the argument is that if the US were governed by a pro-energy government like that of Trump, then Alberta would be more successful regardless of how small of a populace it is because of the amount of energy we have and what we could provide to the US.
00:13:27.200It's like Jordan Peterson said, alluding to if the US could offer us a better deal than Canada.
00:13:34.100The Western provinces becoming its own country altogether would be an interesting idea.
00:13:39.240I wonder what kind of deals it would be able to usher with the US and what Eastern Canada would do without us.
00:13:45.100Anyways, there were so many good comments last week, it was very difficult to choose.
00:13:49.420I mean, I could genuinely sit here and do this all day.
00:13:52.540But unfortunately, that wraps up our comment roundup in this week's show.
00:13:56.260My name's Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the Alberta Roundup.