Mark Slapinski

00:00:00.000 mark carney is having a real rough time lately last week both ctv and cbc turned on him as well

00:00:06.240 as his own budget officer this week is looking even worse if that's possible yesterday he gave

00:00:12.560 a long rambling incoherent speech about truth and reconciliation where he used indigenous people as

00:00:18.320 props now daniel smith is on television giving him a series of love taps let's look at that together

00:00:24.960 and then stick around to the end for some commentary back in june of 2025 so just a number of months ago

00:00:30.560 you told bloomberg i hope all of the financing for this project comes from the private sector

00:00:35.040 i don't think governments should have to be involved in financing this the laws that exist

00:00:40.000 around the environment regulations are the same the greater context is the same what changed

00:00:45.040 we are prepared to put 14 million on the table to get us through the first couple of stages one would

00:00:50.880 be the technical analysis and understanding what the route might be and some initial consultation

00:00:55.600 to get it to a point where it can be approved by the major projects office and part of the feedback

00:01:00.400 that we got from the industry was that they're not prepared to take on the risk of moving forward on

00:01:05.760 this until we can see some major changes in some of the laws so i've proposed i've been what i've been

00:01:10.240 calling the grand bargain with the federal government let's address the nine bad laws let's uh commit to

00:01:15.120 a bitumen pipeline and let's commit to the pathways project and i think that that's going to be a path

00:01:18.960 forward if we can if we can come to those agreements together so we just wanted to push this forward to

00:01:24.000 break through the logjam and see if we can get that approval from the federal government

00:01:29.440 what logjam exists though if the path forward as you identify it did exist if those conversations were

00:01:34.320 happening with the prime minister and the federal government they had put the pathways list for the

00:01:38.160 pathways project for example on those secondary five items under the five projects that they wanted to

00:01:43.600 give the green light right away like if all of that was happening why does it require

00:01:47.840 taxpayer money to advance anything well it's 14 million and i think that the reason is because

00:01:54.080 a proponent has told us that they cannot get companies lined up to ship on their pipeline as

00:01:59.200 long as we continue to have a tanker ban an emissions cap and some of the other bad laws that

00:02:04.240 are in place and so we know that it's going to take our work to make sure that the federal government

00:02:09.120 repeals or in some way revises those job those those bad laws substantially and to get to that point

00:02:16.640 we want to make sure that there's some of the technical work being done in the meantime i i'm

00:02:20.960 the ball's going to be in in prime minister mark carney's court about whether he is committed to

00:02:25.760 becoming an energy superpower is if he's committed in in creating an economy in canada that will lead

00:02:31.520 the g7 this is the kind of project that needs to be approved and in creating the investment climate

00:02:36.800 that will attract private capital back that i think would be the exercise that we're all trying to

00:02:41.280 do here if every project has to be underwritten or paid for outright by federal taxpayers or

00:02:46.560 provincial taxpayers then it's a failure what we have to do is attract back private capital again

00:02:52.480 why are you confident that the removal of those irritants as you identify them will do the job in

00:02:58.320 attracting back private capital and and i ask because i think back to a time when those things

00:03:03.520 didn't exist right under the previous harper government it certainly didn't see uh you know an

00:03:09.760 increase in oil production that was through the roof or pipelines get built through the roof like

00:03:13.600 there was very specific opposition that existed let's just take northern gateway which was this

00:03:18.000 10 years ago that ultimately made its way through the courts the courts agreed that adequate consultation

00:03:23.600 wasn't done and that at the time was what blocked the pipeline from going ahead not the existence of

00:03:29.680 a tanker ban not the existence of c69 not the existence of the emissions cap so why are you so certain

00:03:35.200 if those things are removed the opposition that existed 10 years ago will not provide an impediment

00:03:39.920 this time well we did have a private proponent 10 years ago it was enbridge we had a proponent

00:03:44.720 of energy east 10 years ago as well tc energy we also had a private proponent of keystone xl tc energy

00:03:50.240 but when you layer on bad policy and bad law after one after another that that is what's chased the

00:03:56.480 private capital away and so if we can get to a point where i think aspirationally the private the

00:04:01.200 the prime minister wants to get to where we can have this work around on all of those bad laws

00:04:07.200 which is what the two-year time horizon is for the major projects office and at the same time

00:04:12.080 work to repeal or replace uh the bad laws that to create an overall improvement in the investment

00:04:18.320 climate we we think that's where uh we our our interests are going to to synchronize and we think

00:04:24.000 in doing so the fact that we have so many of the companies that are at the table wanting to advise

00:04:29.120 us from a technical point of view the fact that we had over 100 executives in the room from different

00:04:33.520 energy companies that that shows to me the enthusiasm to get to a yes so i i believe very

00:04:38.960 strongly that if we can get to a point where this is on the major projects list there's a commitment to

00:04:43.680 get it approved within a reasonable time frame that we will be able to attract those dollars back

00:04:47.760 as we've been able to in the past so is it your impression from those proponents that they believe

00:04:53.600 if for example all those irritants in the form of those laws are removed that there will be a

00:04:58.640 proponent for this pipeline because again they will still be up against for example coastal first

00:05:02.880 nations which just released a press release saying as the rights and title holders of bc's

00:05:07.440 north and central coast and haida guai we must inform premier smith once again that there is no

00:05:11.920 support from coastal first nations for a pipeline and oil tankers project in our coastal waters like

00:05:16.960 that opposition doesn't disappear even if mark kearney does everything you want him to

00:05:22.160 well we'll see i mean we i have a very skilled indigenous relations minister is very sensitive

00:05:26.880 to the fact that any major project that goes forward has to have indigenous ownership as

00:05:31.360 the foundation that's a bit different than it was 10 years ago that we're beginning with the

00:05:36.640 conversation about how we can get to a yes and she began the conversations already on monday making

00:05:42.000 a number of phone calls and she's going to continue doing that she's already visited port of prince

00:05:46.000 rupert and had a chance to to talk with with some indigenous leadership there so it's a process and

00:05:51.840 we have to begin with relationship building in and make sure that that there's an understanding of

00:05:56.800 the benefits that all of us get not just alberta but all of canada and the bands in particular and

00:06:02.240 so we're prepared to do a lot of that hard work that's uh that's what indigenous consultation and

00:06:07.120 meaningful consultation is all about and so that's why we got started on it right away

00:06:12.240 and i do understand your point about endeavoring to change that and if it were you know one or five or

00:06:18.800 even 10 first nations that had expressed some opposition to this i i i can you know envision

00:06:24.240 a path forward but i think it was 61 first nations 10 years ago that expressed opposition so much so

00:06:30.480 that they took it all the way through the courts and ultimately got a decision in their favor how much

00:06:35.840 taxpayer money are you willing to bet on something like this when the track record is what it is

00:06:41.440 well i guess i would say that uh justin trudeau was not a fan of pipelines and yet under his

00:06:46.720 under his term in office the coastal gas link pipeline got built the trans mountain expansion

00:06:52.800 happened so it is possible for us to build large linear projects we have to be able to find a way

00:06:58.400 to do it at much less expense and with much greater a benefit to indigenous communities as well

00:07:05.440 as much more reliance on private sector money so it is possible to build these kinds of major projects

00:07:11.120 and so this is part of the reason why we want to start that conversation now we want to we want

00:07:15.360 to get to a yes we want this to be a win for everyone a win for alberta win for the nations

00:07:19.600 that are impacted and a win for canada also this is going to be ultimately if it's a million barrels

00:07:24.960 a day a 20 billion dollar annual boost to our gdp governments end up benefiting about 40 from that

00:07:32.400 you can you can help to meet your nato commitments at the federal level it would help us to be able to

00:07:36.800 meet our our health and education and infrastructure needs provincially we have to be able to build these

00:07:42.000 kinds of projects we've got a nine trillion dollar value in our bitumen that are beneath our feet in

00:07:47.440 alberta we have to be able to get it to market and this would be the way that we'd be able to access

00:07:53.440 the new markets in asia that are very keen to work with us on this i suppose we could keep on relying on

00:07:59.840 the same market in the united states working with american partners and sending more of our products

00:08:05.200 south but that's also a failure of the exercise the reason why everyone is talking about major

00:08:10.320 projects in the first place is because we've become over reliant on a single customer and

00:08:15.120 we need to build new markets this is what it looks like is that we've got to work together to make that

00:08:19.280 happen and i do understand that point i guess uh you know tmx has already greatly expanded our share of

00:08:26.640 of our ability i would say to to diversify our markets to the boon of both provincial and and federal

00:08:33.040 coffers my question though was about how much taxpayer money at a maximum you're willing to sink in

00:08:38.640 because it's it's you know the the type of bet you're making is ultimately contingent on the

00:08:44.560 return for and you talked about the potential return right i'm you know i remember a time when

00:08:49.360 your predecessor of the same priority premier jason kenney sunk 1.3 billion dollars into making a bet

00:08:54.400 on keystone that taxpayers ultimately ended up footing the bill for so on behalf of those taxpayers

00:08:59.920 isn't it fair to ask if they're really going to get value for money and how much of their money

00:09:03.840 you're willing to sink into a project that could not get anywhere 10 years ago well and and the

00:09:09.360 ndp sunk 1.3 billion dollars into a oil by rail that didn't work um and the federal government

00:09:16.240 ended up probably overpaying i'm just letting you know and the federal government overpaid

00:09:20.800 by probably about 10 billion dollars on building the trans mountain pipeline this is why we need to

00:09:26.160 create a process that is streamlined where we bring in private capital i i would look at this as a success

00:09:32.960 by having a private sector proponent come forward are you asking me if i have 34 billion dollars

00:09:37.600 kicking around to be able to pay for this no i don't nor does the federal government when you

00:09:42.080 look at what the parliamentary budget officer said when you look at the significant deficit that

00:09:46.160 they're facing we need to have these kinds of projects built to create wealth to create government

00:09:50.880 government revenue for both our government and the federal government and we can't keep saying no

00:09:55.040 to everything we have to find a way to get to yes we have to have to find a way to address the

00:09:59.040 legitimate concerns that are being raised but this has to be a country that builds things again

00:10:03.840 because otherwise we're all going to face very very dire situations in our in our federal budget

00:10:08.720 deficits and our provincial budget deficits we just can't afford to to keep on doing things the

00:10:13.280 way we've done them the past 10 years we've got to get the private sector back and confident that

00:10:17.680 these are the kind of projects that they can get to the finish line just very quickly is 14 million that

00:10:23.280 the max that your government will invest of taxpayer money i hope so um but i as i've said we will

00:10:30.800 well i'll tell you why it's because we have a facility called the alberta indigenous opportunities

00:10:34.800 corporation where we have the ability to underwrite up to 3 billion dollars in loan guarantees so that

00:10:39.280 indigenous uh nations are able to take an equity stake so that gives you an idea of how serious we are 0.56

00:10:45.680 about underwriting these kinds of projects we've already done that with 750 million worth of projects

00:10:50.880 including pipeline projects that are going to deliver a 1.3 billion dollars worth of revenue

00:10:56.160 to a 43 of our of our 44 nations so we've already put our money where our mouth is and we're prepared

00:11:01.760 to do more of that the federal government also has a similar type of program and we're hoping to be

00:11:06.560 able to partner with them on that i think that that's the appropriate way for governments to

00:11:10.080 intervene is to make sure that indigenous equity uh stakes can can be purchased and that they can get

00:11:15.440 the long-term benefit from it but just to be clear like that's loans i'm saying like right now you're

00:11:21.200 putting 14 million dollars in to get this process going are you going to put 5 billion in to get it

00:11:25.360 built that's the question well look we we have to find out what it's going to cost to build i'm i've

00:11:31.680 been told that it could be anywhere from 20 to 30 billion dollars and no alberta doesn't have the

00:11:36.640 money to build 20 or 30 billion dollars we need a private sector proponent the way we get a private

00:11:41.920 sector proponent is we work with the federal government so that there's an answer that's going

00:11:46.000 to be yes at the end of this process and i am very confident when we get to that point the private

00:11:50.960 sector will will come in it's going to be up to prime minister carney whether or not he wants to

00:11:56.240 work with us on being able to advance these kinds of projects or not whether uh what he campaigned on

00:12:01.360 in being a leader in the g7 and being an energy superpower on conventional and new energy is real

00:12:06.720 and so we will see um we'll know in pretty short order because we'll be well i'll be meeting with him

00:12:11.680 and we'll be continuing to do the technical work and i would hope that the answer is yes

00:12:17.120 okay i'll leave it on that note appreciate your time as always premier thank you so much

00:12:20.400 yeah thank you i have to say daniel smith is my favorite politician in canada aside from poly of

00:12:25.680 of course she's smart well-spoken and pretty good looking considering her age now i know the last part's

00:12:32.640 not really important but it is a bonus now it does appear that smith is trying really hard to get

00:12:37.280 carney to the table on pipelines however i think she secretly knows he won't budge but that'll help

00:12:42.880 fuel the discontent towards carney and help boost poly evan the polls it isn't really debatable at

00:12:48.400 this point canada needs more pipelines and smith is a hundred percent right will carney do the right

00:12:54.000 thing of course not but that's only going to help us get poly evan faster like i said before i don't

00:12:59.120 think carney is going to last much longer than six months he literally has the weight of the world

00:13:03.600 crashing down on him and he continues to get worse and worse every single day hang in there have some

00:13:09.600 faith we'll have poly evan office soon enough talk to you tomorrow patriots

Danielle Smith Gives Carney ADVICE On Live TV

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