Learn English with the Premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley. In a speech to the United Conservative Party of Alberta's convention in Edmonton, Alberta s premier, Danielle Smith, urges her supporters to never give up on their fight for freedom and prosperity.
00:06:12.060Yeah, throw open the doors for massive investments into AI data centers.
00:06:19.100And this agreement includes a clear path to the construction of a one million barrel per day bitumen pipeline to Asian markets,
00:06:25.600so that our province and our country are no longer dependent on just one customer to buy our most valuable resource.
00:06:32.020This agreement also allows for needed exemptions to the oil tanker ban, an overhaul of the known new pipeline law, C-69,
00:06:44.660and ensuring our energy companies are able to advertise their environmental leadership and efforts without fear of penalty.
00:06:51.280And this agreement also means that Alberta can show the entire world that the solution to our environmental challenges does not entail capping productivity and growth in the oil and gas development.
00:07:02.720Rather, it is to leverage the profitability of a strong oil and gas sector to invest in the very technologies that will solve the environmental challenges that we face.
00:07:13.040Now, my friends, I am under no illusions.
00:07:17.280This agreement is just the first step in this journey.
00:08:22.580And all of Canada and the world has noticed and wants to be a part of it.
00:08:26.180And let there be no doubt, no doubt about how important immigration and interprovincial migration have been to our previous success.
00:08:35.200New Albertans from other provinces and countries have been essential to our economic prosperity and rich culture.
00:08:41.300For over 100 years, Alberta has had a history of healthy levels of primarily economic immigrants able to easily integrate into Alberta's economy and culture.
00:08:52.420But that was upended by the last 10 years of what was effectively an open borders policy by Ottawa.
00:08:58.160And Albertans of all ages, ethnicities, and immigration history have had quite enough.
00:09:05.060We need an immigration policy that puts Albertans first.
00:09:08.540And that is why our government will be taking primary control over our immigration system in the coming months and years ahead.
00:09:21.380Using our constitutionally protected provincial rights, Alberta will return to a more stable number of primarily economic migrants so that newcomers come here to work and contribute as they have historically done.
00:09:39.400And despite the continued hysterics of the NDP and their woke activists, Alberta will continue to march boldly forward with policies that promote freedom, save lives, and make our communities safe.
00:10:03.660This government will fund, not defund, not defund the police.
00:10:11.060We will seek justice for victims, not excuses for the guilty.
00:10:19.600We will replace enabling continued drug use for the addicted with providing treatment and a means to recovery.
00:10:27.160We will lift up and support those struggling with mental health, rather than giving them the means to end their lives because of it.
00:10:42.780And while governments around the world seek to institutionalize the censorship of free speech, our government will forge an accelerated path in the opposite direction.
00:10:51.980That's why last week, our government, inspired by the attack on Dr. Jordan Peterson, as well as so many other doctors and lawyers and nurses and teachers and others, introduced legislation containing comprehensive free speech protection so that no professional will lose their license to practice due to their political beliefs or for not kowtowing to DEI and other destructive mandates.
00:11:40.520That was your policy you passed last AGM.
00:11:43.480We're calling it the Peterson Law, but we aren't stopping there.
00:11:46.460I'm announcing today that next week, our UCP government will be introducing a new motion under the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act
00:11:55.260that will, if passed in the legislature, instruct all provincial entities, including our municipalities and law enforcement agencies,
00:12:03.980to refuse to enforce or prosecute under the federal gun seizure program.
00:12:16.460Now, the Sovereignty Act motion will also make it clear that these agencies will not enforce or prosecute Albertans defending their homes and families from intruders.
00:12:46.460I got a little tip for low-life criminals out there.
00:12:56.300If you don't want to get shot, don't break into someone's house.
00:13:00.080It's really that simple, isn't it? It really is.
00:13:05.820We want our great men and women in law enforcement and our justice system to spend their precious time and effort going after criminals,
00:13:13.620not farmers, not ranchers or sport shooters, nor Albertans defending their families and their homes.
00:15:22.700When it comes, there's a couple ways I look at Nutrient's decision.
00:15:25.700I have spoken with the Hysla band who manages the Kitimat export facility and they were disappointed.
00:15:35.560They would have liked to have been considered on that.
00:15:37.200I know that they're not that keen on a bitumen pipeline, but they are keen on developing their infrastructure for everything else.
00:15:42.620So I'll make sure to raise that with Premier Moe to see if there are future opportunities to look at the potential for Kitimat.
00:15:50.480The second thing I'd say is, it's pretty clear that a lot of the problems that we have in Canada are related to work stoppages.
00:15:58.140Airlines, ports, rail lines, it's been just a rotation one after the other after the other.
00:16:03.720And I noticed with some interest in the federal budget that they are creating a mechanism to order binding arbitration with limits around policy
00:16:12.420and around the potential cost for government.
00:16:14.840So I'm looking at that legislation thinking if you can get work stoppages completed faster and still be able to have a mechanism to resolve them through binding arbitration
00:16:23.840that doesn't leave an open end, that may create the kind of certainty that we're looking for.
00:16:28.820I know that when I was talking with our federal counterparts, I said, you got to do something because I felt like every day or every other day
00:16:35.060for a good, a solid six-month period, I was asking for them to end one strike or another.
00:17:09.020The United States doesn't have it, of course.
00:17:12.340Brookfield is heavily invested in pipelines in other parts of the world.
00:17:17.600How do you reconcile that with encouraging pipeline investment to Alberta?
00:17:26.180Is there a private sector pipeline company that is even floating the notion of investing in Alberta?
00:17:34.500Well, I'll deal with those in two parts.
00:17:37.080So I guess the first one I would say is we negotiated a decrease to the carbon tax because it was slated to go up to $170 by 2030.
00:17:46.880And we persuaded the Prime Minister that that was just going to be crushing to our industry and we needed to moderate that.
00:17:53.560And so we had frozen it to send a message that we just didn't think it could go up at that rate.
00:17:59.180And now we'll have a negotiation to see how quickly we get to $130 and what factors we would look at.
00:18:05.200I would encourage you maybe to talk to private industry because we've had an industrial carbon price since 2007.
00:18:13.100And you've got a number of companies that are investing in emissions reduction technologies who need a certain carbon price to make that worthwhile.
00:18:21.360And then you've got other companies who are payers.
00:18:23.260And so there is a bit of the push and the pull is that there's a price that's going to make sure that we do not dampen investment.
00:18:31.560But there's also a price that we need to have to motivate more of the investment in the emissions reduction technology.
00:18:38.280When we went out and consulted on this, when we froze the price at $95, we'd actually considered rolling it back.
00:18:44.200And enough of the consultation feedback came back saying keep it where it is.
00:18:47.760But there is, I think, an upper limit to how far we can go and how fast.
00:18:53.240When it comes to pipelines, I'll tell you, the way pipelines get built is they go out and do an open season.
00:18:59.640And they say, is there anyone willing to pledge barrels?
00:19:01.900And when we had an emissions cap, the answer would be no, because what's the point?
00:19:04.820Because you're just going to have to shut in production by 2035 if those rules were in place.
00:19:08.980If you have a tanker bin, what's the point if you can't load the tankers up?
00:19:13.380And so with the acceptance of a car loan, with the elimination of the emissions cap, we believe that some of those open seasons are going to go ahead and that we'll start seeing private proponents come forward.
00:19:24.380The one I'm looking at as probably the first project is Enbridge's mainline expansion.
00:19:31.460The next one I would look at would be the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
00:19:35.120Even David Eby and I agree on that one.
00:19:37.540I think they've said that they could go up 360,000 barrels.
00:19:40.200And then I know South Bow is working on using the old Keystone assets that they acquired from TC Energy to see if they can get a pipeline south.
00:19:51.240So we've been in active discussions with the United States to see what kind of opportunity there might be to do more pipelines going south, as well as Doug Ford, how we might be able to get more going east.
00:20:03.700I read today that even Legault, Francois Legault, said that maybe a pipeline to Quebec wouldn't be impossible.
00:20:11.760So the entire attitude towards oil and gas development has changed, even in Quebec.
00:20:16.560And a little more work to do in British Columbia, but we're going to continue to do that work.
00:20:20.880Well, we're on a lunch break at the Alberta United Conservative Party conference.
00:20:25.260Very interesting keynote speech by the Premier.
00:20:28.160Lots of applause lines, for example, when she said she was going to call for reduced immigration, when she said she was going to crack down on biological men in women's places, including sports.
00:20:40.360But there was some raised eyebrows, including some gentle booing when the topic of the memorandum of understanding with the federal liberals came up.
00:20:50.140I'm going to chat a little bit with two of my colleagues to see what they think of the conference so far.
00:20:54.920Sheila, you were there in the big pit where 4,000 delegates were listening to the Premier.
00:21:02.000They're just worried that she might be getting bamboozled and hornswoggled on the MOU, that pipeline deal.
00:21:10.040The pipeline deal is not popular with the grassroots.
00:21:14.260You can see that in the policy book, the resolutions that are proposed to hit the floor today, later on today, most of them deal with net zero.
00:22:16.660And even people who I don't quite know, I think that independent journalism is changing and breaking the monopoly held by those regime journalists.
00:22:27.000It's amazing to see these independent voices.
00:22:30.060We have seen a few mainstream media here as well, but you can see that it's the independent media that is going around, really talking to the people and getting the other side of the story.
00:22:38.560Because what the mainstream media here is going to do, they're going to frame this a certain way.
00:22:42.660But here we give the voice to the people here, the members here, and everyone's happy to see us here.
00:22:50.660There are some regime journalists here, including from the CBC.
00:22:54.320I'm not going to say they're sullen, but they're definitely their own mission is to undermine and to critique.
00:23:02.780And I'm quite certain that they're not doing genuine streeters, as we call them, because let's be honest, the regime media is despised by these folks.
00:23:13.580You know, during the Cold War, Richard Nixon was the president, and he was known as a staunch anti-communist.
00:23:21.500I mean, he really, that was one of his characteristics people knew about him, yet he was the one who secretly did a deal with communist China, the most authoritarian, abusive regime in the world, to get them to flip, to break away from the Soviet Union, and to be open to the West.
00:23:44.420It was a strategic move to split the communist bloc.
00:23:48.920And there was a saying, only Nixon could go to China.
00:23:52.900The meaning is, everyone knew that he was not a sympathizer.
00:24:14.560So if she talks to Mark Carney, is it like Nixon going to China?
00:24:19.760She's really the only person who could be trusted to do it.
00:24:23.520I think maybe that was her intent, but I think a lot of people are perfectly able to read that MOU and understand what it says.
00:24:33.960It says that Albertans will pay an enhanced industrial carbon tax for maybe nothing, for a pipeline that may never materialize.
00:24:44.180And when you see that the federal conservatives are coming out against that enhanced carbon tax, and the former premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, has come out against the MOU.
00:24:57.460A lot of people understand what that MOU means, and it's actually a lot of nothing except burdens for Albertans.
00:25:05.020So I do trust that Danielle Smith has Alberta's best interests at heart, but I think she's given up too much here.
00:25:11.700I mean, I think back to Jason Kenney, who I used to know quite well.
00:25:31.140It's really the merger of the old Wildrose and what used to be called the PCs.
00:25:36.940How many people here are actually independence-minded Albertans who, if this project fails, would be for independence?
00:25:50.080I can't speak for the ministers of the MLA specifically, but I do think if this project fails, the independence movement is going to skyrocket because it's going to be a bit of a failed promise on behalf of the UCP and Danielle Smith.
00:26:03.860And they've put so much trust into her, and I really think that it's going to be the breaking point because right now it's already starting to stir up.
00:26:11.400But if she has a failed promise as big as that, I think it's going to definitely change the movement.
00:26:16.820I haven't spoken to, I've talked to a ton of grassroots members over the day and a half that I've been here.
00:26:21.800Not a single one has said that they are not independence-minded.
00:26:24.720Not a single one has said, look, I don't like the separatist sentiment that is at the AGM.
00:26:32.500The separatist sentiment is really the story of the AGM.
00:26:36.140It's the MOU that's hanging in the air and then the separatists.
00:26:39.820This is, I think, a very strong showing for the Alberta Prosperity Project.
00:26:45.580It sounds like they're set to take over a lot of board positions.
00:26:49.040And that's an advocacy group we've been affiliated, we've done events with them, and they're more hard-line.
00:26:55.580Yeah, they're sort of the group that's advancing the conversation about independence and addressing the question about, you know, what happens if this, how do we do that?
00:27:05.840You know, they're participating in the board elections.
00:27:09.820They're very organized at this convention.
00:27:12.440And I think they're the underlying story in all of this.
00:27:15.700And they will ultimately hold Daniel Smith to account if nothing comes of that MOU.
00:27:59.320If it fails, if it doesn't go ahead, if no pipeline proponent comes forward, if it's killed by some extremist group, then, Angelica, I think the premier could say, you know me, you saw me.
00:28:13.160I went further and harder than anyone in history to get a deal.
00:28:55.380Daniel Smith has honestly been one of our best premiers we've had in the province.
00:28:59.180She's delivered on so many things, the gender issues, women in sports, so many things.
00:29:05.860Today she also announced a bunch of other things.
00:29:07.700And I think she's been a leader when it comes to actually advancing the conservative movement and not being sort of a fake conservative like we see in Ontario.
00:29:16.440And that's the difference between booing the pipeline proposal and booing the premier.
00:29:20.700I think this crowd is extremely, in fact, they support her.
00:29:32.320Why don't you just quickly go through a couple of the other things, because it's not just about the memorandum of understanding on the pipelines.
00:30:04.620But it is in reaction to something that happened in Ontario.
00:30:07.580And we know during COVID, many of the doctors face consequences from the College of Physicians and Surgeons because of their outspokenness and skepticism on COVID.
00:30:18.780I should tell you that I was actually consulted.
00:30:20.860The Justice Minister of Alberta put together a group of people who had been hassled in their professional organization.
00:30:28.660And they invited me because about 20 years ago, when I was a member of the Lost Society of Alberta, there were more than 20 fake complaints sent in over my politics.
00:30:37.800So I have one drop of paternity over what happened.
00:30:41.940But they've been planning this free speech move for a while.
00:30:45.400And I just wanted to tell you that in my own teeny tiny way, I mean, it was certainly nothing on the scale of what happened to Jordan Peterson.
00:30:52.100But some of these changes they're announcing, they do take months or years to work it through.
00:30:58.540And then I think the second most popular or maybe equally popular two policies was that our RCMP would not be participating in the federal government's gun grab.
00:31:12.320So we don't know what that's going to look like, if it's going to look like what they're doing in Saskatchewan by creating a gun grab approval agency and then not funding it or...
00:31:45.840And so, you know, that addresses the problems of the federal government with their catch and release laws, with their, you know, taking away mandatory minimums and changing sentencing guidelines based on systemic racism,
00:31:59.860which is one of the things that they did around gang-related offenses.
00:32:03.800So protecting our ability to protect our families and our own homes.