The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - How the Alberta gov is standing up for oil and gas

00:00:00.000 When you let aero truffle bubbles melt, everything takes on a creamy, delicious, chocolatey glow.

00:00:06.320 Like that pile of laundry. You didn't forget to fold it.

00:00:09.220 Nah, it's a new trend. Wrinkled chic.

00:00:12.100 Feel the aero bubbles melt. It's mind-bubbling.

00:00:26.020 Welcome to this week's episode of the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:28.860 I'm your host, Isaac Lamoureux, and you might be thinking that I'm wearing this suit

00:00:33.280 because of some of the heat I faced for wearing a Christmas sweater on my Christmas episode.

00:00:38.140 But no, I decided to dress up today because in this episode,

00:00:42.380 I'll be joined by Alberta's Minister of Energy and Minerals, Brian Jean,

00:00:46.440 for a look into the provinces, countries, and even the world's energy future,

00:00:50.760 with Conservative leader Pierre Polyèvre and President-elect Donald Trump

00:00:54.980 leading their countries with a more pro-energy approach in 2025.

00:00:59.780 In this episode, we'll explore Minister Jean's outlook on the growing international demand

00:01:04.900 for Alberta's energy and what 2025 could bring for the industry

00:01:09.240 by collaborating more closely with a pro-energy federal government.

00:01:13.080 We'll also discuss Alberta's push to make the federal emissions targets more realistic,

00:01:19.500 Jean's take on balancing environmental goals with affordability,

00:01:23.020 and his views on addressing the small but loud climate activist voices.

00:01:27.960 Minister Jean shares insights into Alberta's economic advantages,

00:01:31.640 from high-paying energy jobs to the growing opportunities in minerals

00:01:35.440 like lithium, titanium, and helium.

00:01:38.740 He also provides commentary on the state of Alberta's opposition,

00:01:42.540 the NDP's lack of leadership,

00:01:44.740 and how Alberta can strengthen collaboration with the United States

00:01:48.140 on cross-border issues like illegal trade and energy exports.

00:01:52.360 Let's hop right into that interview now.

00:01:54.240 So yeah, with the likely election of Pierre Polyèvre

00:01:56.520 and the incoming Trump administration,

00:01:59.020 and of course assuming the trade impasses will be dealt with,

00:02:01.680 will the demand for Canadian energy in 2025 be higher than ever?

00:02:07.220 Well, I think so.

00:02:08.200 We're certainly at record levels now.

00:02:10.620 The world is at record levels.

00:02:13.080 You know, we believe that with more egress and more opportunity,

00:02:17.460 we will have more customers for our product.

00:02:20.860 We have an endless supply of people that want to buy our product,

00:02:23.520 including, you know, other countries such as India or Korea or Japan.

00:02:29.340 They're all looking for opportunities to buy our energy.

00:02:32.600 And I think with the future, it looks very bright indeed.

00:02:37.800 And then looking ahead into 2025, I'm just curious,

00:02:40.180 what are your top priorities?

00:02:43.380 Well, I think the one thing we need to do is work aggressively

00:02:47.060 with the feds to change their emissions targets to be more realistic.

00:02:53.100 The 2050 timeframe is realistic,

00:02:56.060 and I think it gives us an opportunity to have technology catch up to us

00:02:59.080 and offer what it can do.

00:03:02.280 I just think that's got to be our number one objective.

00:03:04.980 But people are having a difficult time right now.

00:03:07.780 Affordability is definitely an issue on everybody's mind.

00:03:10.340 So I think as we go forward as a government,

00:03:12.040 we have to look for ways to make things more efficient and more effective,

00:03:14.640 but at the same time distribute, take care of people properly,

00:03:18.500 and make sure we invest properly so that Albertans have lots of jobs,

00:03:25.380 lots of wealth, so they're healthy and happy.

00:03:29.140 And I think that's what it's all about, making sure your family is healthy,

00:03:32.560 making sure your life is happy,

00:03:34.200 and you can do that better when you have a job and when you have a future.

00:03:38.400 And speaking quickly on the expectations surrounding emissions,

00:03:42.640 so there's obviously international demand for Canadian energy,

00:03:47.220 but the small but loud voices of climate activists

00:03:50.360 are evidently continuing to push for net zero.

00:03:54.380 So I'm just curious if there's any plans

00:03:57.020 on how to deal with this small but loud minority.

00:04:02.180 Well, I think telling the truth

00:04:03.160 and providing proper education for them

00:04:05.120 is the most critical path forward.

00:04:07.220 I think we have to continue to put forward a position of strength together.

00:04:14.180 The energy that we do provide to people,

00:04:17.240 I mean, whether it's a warm shower in the morning

00:04:19.880 or a warm house right now,

00:04:21.360 I'm in Fort McMurray right now, it's minus 15, 20.

00:04:25.360 And I will tell you last night it got a little bit colder,

00:04:27.460 and I'm really glad that I have natural gas

00:04:29.540 for a very reasonable price, heating my home.

00:04:32.080 And then I get into my vehicle,

00:04:33.120 which is fueled by oil sands oil,

00:04:37.780 and I'm able to stay warm in my vehicle

00:04:41.040 and also drive great distances in relatively short times

00:04:44.460 because of our great transportation network.

00:04:46.360 All of these things, including the transportation network,

00:04:48.620 includes needs, Alberta resources, bitumen.

00:04:54.820 There's no question that Alberta has a very bright future

00:04:57.260 if we have the opportunity to sell our product to the world,

00:05:00.620 which is guaranteed by our constitution.

00:05:02.040 And that's the other thing that I think is alive and well for the future

00:05:05.640 is making sure that we enforce our rights under the Canadian constitution,

00:05:08.800 which is a reasonable thing to do when you have a federal counterpart

00:05:14.260 that is aggressively going in our jurisdictional space.

00:05:18.520 And we just have to make sure we keep them in theirs.

00:05:20.460 And then just speaking quickly on the opposition in Alberta,

00:05:25.400 I'm curious to get your thoughts on where you think the NDP

00:05:27.940 and Naheed Nenshi stand on the development of Canadian energy.

00:05:33.340 Well, it's interesting you ask what my stand is on Naheed Nenshi.

00:05:37.100 I would like to know where he's standing because I'm not sure where he is right now.

00:05:40.200 You know, I've looked for him in the House.

00:05:41.500 I've seen him a couple of times hiding behind some polls there,

00:05:43.660 but no-show Nenshi is not around.

00:05:47.580 He had a chance to run in the Lethbridge by-election, didn't take it.

00:05:50.600 I'm kind of surprised.

00:05:51.500 Now we have another MLA, an NDP MLA from Lethbridge,

00:05:54.400 so he obviously could have won that seat.

00:05:57.120 Why is he refusing to come to work every day?

00:05:59.320 That's what I'm kind of wondering.

00:06:00.380 And I think as somebody that has a record from Calgary,

00:06:04.560 it might be the reason why is because the record is one of high taxes

00:06:08.300 and not listening to the people.

00:06:09.900 So, you know, am I concerned about the opposition?

00:06:14.460 Well, they have a job to do just like I have a job to do,

00:06:16.760 but right now they're leaderless in my mind,

00:06:18.900 and their job should be to focus on getting a good leader

00:06:21.700 so they're a good, effective opposition, and they're not right now.

00:06:26.340 And Premier Smith has said that she would not consider a threat

00:06:29.560 like Ontario Premier Doug Ford made on energy,

00:06:32.240 but if the tariffs were to come,

00:06:33.920 do you see any situation wherein Alberta could get a tax exemption

00:06:38.680 or a tariff exemption on energy?

00:06:42.040 Well, you know, I think we should look at this as more of an opportunity,

00:06:45.120 and I think Premier Smith is.

00:06:46.600 We've got an opportunity right now to work with the U.S. administration

00:06:49.120 to get rid of fentanyl cross-border illegal activities

00:06:52.620 and trade of humans and just, you know,

00:06:56.200 all those things like guns and other things

00:06:59.140 that go back and forth across the border.

00:07:00.620 Those are real, and we need to stop them,

00:07:03.300 and we have an opportunity with the U.S. president right now to stop them.

00:07:06.120 So I don't know why we wouldn't grab this opportunity

00:07:08.820 and say, yahoo, let's do it.

00:07:10.720 Let's do it together, and let's get rid of the illegal drug trade

00:07:14.080 that's so prevalent in border crossings, as we know,

00:07:17.800 and let's work with them to stamp it out in North America.

00:07:21.560 I think that's a great opportunity.

00:07:22.720 Are we going to see prices in the United States

00:07:27.580 rise by 50 cents to a dollar a gallon in the Midwest?

00:07:32.280 Well, that's the same question you just asked.

00:07:35.100 I don't think Trump's that kind of person, but maybe I'm wrong.

00:07:38.400 Does he want to drive the people that voted for him

00:07:40.740 to have, you know, more expensive gasoline

00:07:43.660 as a result of a tariff that he put in by 50 cents or a dollar?

00:07:47.420 I don't think he's that person.

00:07:49.560 I think he's trying to drive a deal.

00:07:51.080 He's a businessman, and he's saying, listen,

00:07:52.680 you guys are gong shop north, just not as bad as down south.

00:07:57.800 I mean, the drug trade down there is a lot worse.

00:07:59.480 The human trafficking is a lot worse.

00:08:00.980 The gun trade is probably a lot worse.

00:08:04.140 I don't know.

00:08:05.660 But what we do know is that we've got a great opportunity

00:08:08.300 to work with the U.S. administration

00:08:09.520 to make sure our oil and gas flow through,

00:08:12.080 make sure we work with them to clean up some things.

00:08:15.120 Donald Trump is negotiating.

00:08:16.580 This is a deal for him, and he's saying, like,

00:08:18.300 I don't like how our borders are.

00:08:20.460 I think that's totally reasonable.

00:08:21.840 I don't either.

00:08:22.640 So let's clean him up, and let's work together to do that.

00:08:24.820 And in the meantime, exempt our oil and gas,

00:08:27.020 because it's only going to be better for your people,

00:08:28.660 just like it's going to be better for our people.

00:08:30.160 He may not realize how many Americans

00:08:31.720 actually work up here in the oil sands.

00:08:33.080 But is there any situation you could see happening

00:08:55.020 where retaliatory measures would need to happen?

00:08:58.360 I know Smith kind of took a stance against it,

00:09:01.120 but is there any situation where that could happen?

00:09:04.280 I certainly hope not.

00:09:05.420 It's beyond the scope of the provincial government to do so.

00:09:09.180 This is a federal government jurisdiction,

00:09:12.820 but I would hate to see the federal government 1.00

00:09:14.940 do something stupid like that and react in the wrong way, 1.00

00:09:17.400 which would cause retaliations backward. 1.00

00:09:20.040 Better off if we get along with our friends to the south.

00:09:22.160 They buy a lot of our product, and it's important.

00:09:25.520 They also, you know, a lot of people don't realize this,

00:09:28.160 but not only do they buy a lot of our product,

00:09:30.820 but in Pad 2 and Pad 4, which are the two most northern areas

00:09:35.800 of the five pads in the U.S.,

00:09:38.100 those two pads use almost exclusively 100% oil sands oil,

00:09:43.140 oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan.

00:09:46.540 I think they'd be pretty silly to increase those prices,

00:09:51.220 and you might say, well, they can just get it in from the south then.

00:09:54.100 Well, they can't. It's not so easy.

00:09:56.220 They're integrated into our pipelines.

00:09:58.100 They're integrated into our heavy oil,

00:10:00.020 and they've made their production facilities

00:10:02.680 and their refineries geared up to take our heavy oil.

00:10:06.680 It cost hundreds of millions of dollars to do that,

00:10:08.600 like millions of dollars.

00:10:10.240 And now they're stuck with our oil.

00:10:11.900 So I think it's going to be a little bit more difficult

00:10:14.240 than just saying, hey, you're sending us that stuff.

00:10:16.980 Let's increase the price.

00:10:18.580 Because he's got to think, whoa, I'm going to increase the price

00:10:22.380 for my people just like I'm going to increase the price

00:10:24.860 for those folks.

00:10:26.400 So am I really accomplishing anything?

00:10:29.180 I think Premier Smith is taking the right approach.

00:10:30.960 Let's work together.

00:10:31.980 Let's find some common places where we can work together,

00:10:34.040 and let's take it as an opportunity and do it.

00:10:36.220 And she has done it.

00:10:36.860 She's got more sheriffs. 1.00

00:10:37.800 She's got drones in there. 1.00

00:10:39.400 She's patrolling the border when it's really

00:10:41.040 a federal jurisdictional responsibility.

00:10:43.240 But you know what?

00:10:44.280 When they're not doing it right,

00:10:45.260 we have to step in and do it.

00:10:46.740 And that's what we're doing, protecting Albertans.

00:10:49.820 And the Albertan government has long-cited

00:10:51.680 the federal government's lack of collaboration,

00:10:54.520 specifically, of course, on energy projects.

00:10:56.720 So I'm curious what that collaboration might look like

00:10:59.500 with a more pro-energy government

00:11:01.420 if Polyefre takes office.

00:11:05.180 Well, I think there's a lot of opportunities,

00:11:06.940 primarily in reducing regulations

00:11:09.380 so that we can get more pipe in the ground.

00:11:11.500 We need more egress. 0.96

00:11:12.520 And if we're going to get this product to market

00:11:16.060 that is the best product in the world,

00:11:17.520 that is the most environmentally friendly

00:11:19.100 and best for human rights and jobs,

00:11:21.060 then we need to get more of it out of the ground

00:11:23.640 and into pipes that go south and go east and go west and north.

00:11:27.860 The truth is, as I mentioned before,

00:11:29.720 Korea, Japan, India, all want to buy our oil,

00:11:34.460 and they want to buy guaranteed supplies long-term.

00:11:38.700 If we can do that,

00:11:39.780 we can increase the price and decrease the differential

00:11:42.400 for our product.

00:11:44.420 And we can also supply many of our allies and friends

00:11:47.380 that are important to the U.S. long-term stability

00:11:51.500 as it is important to Canada's long-term stability.

00:11:54.180 So I truly believe we should work together

00:11:56.460 and think about energy security as we go forward

00:11:58.460 and eliminating energy poverty,

00:12:00.780 which is so prevalent in places like Bangladesh

00:12:02.680 and India, etc.

00:12:04.240 And just taking it a step further,

00:12:06.880 what specific economic benefits might Albertans see

00:12:10.660 in the coming year from a more favourable shift towards energy

00:12:14.560 and subsequently what benefits might be seen nationwide

00:12:16.880 or even worldwide?

00:12:19.760 Well, it's about jobs.

00:12:20.920 And the more Alberta jobs,

00:12:22.820 the more oil that comes out of our ground here,

00:12:24.740 the more natural gas that flows into pipes

00:12:26.540 that go overseas,

00:12:27.500 the better the world is

00:12:29.940 because we displace coal

00:12:31.300 with every bit of natural gas that goes over

00:12:34.260 and that's extremely important.

00:12:37.040 What does it mean for Albertans?

00:12:39.220 Well, the best jobs in Canada right now

00:12:41.540 are in Alberta,

00:12:44.040 in the Fort McMurray region.

00:12:45.840 You know, you can buy a house for $300,000.

00:12:48.660 It's like a five-, six-bedroom house.

00:12:50.600 And you can get a job that pays you

00:12:52.680 the highest household income in the country,

00:12:55.080 $200,000 a year, I believe, last year.

00:12:57.500 So these are great benefits to live in Fort McMurray

00:13:00.680 and rural Alberta, northern Alberta.

00:13:02.700 And a lot of people are looking for those opportunities

00:13:05.380 for their families

00:13:07.400 because they realise that's, you know,

00:13:09.640 that's what makes it important.

00:13:10.980 And home ownership is a reality here.

00:13:14.100 So I think what you see is a lot more wealthier Albertans,

00:13:18.240 in particular First Nations Albertans that live here

00:13:20.540 and First Nation companies that live here

00:13:22.860 and also companies from right across Canada.

00:13:25.180 I'm hoping that more people locate to Alberta

00:13:27.700 because it is the best place to live,

00:13:29.640 work and raise a family in the entire planet.

00:13:32.060 And you can do so as a wealthy individual as well.

00:13:35.680 So it's a great opportunity for families in Canada

00:13:40.500 to be part of the oil and gas sector.

00:13:43.120 Yeah.

00:13:43.280 And are there any other questions

00:13:44.460 I haven't asked or covered that you'd like to say?

00:13:46.720 No, I just would like to say how much I appreciate

00:13:51.260 being the Minister of Energy and Minerals for Alberta.

00:13:54.060 It's, you know, $183 billion industry last year

00:13:57.080 just in oil and gas.

00:13:58.160 And now we have minerals coming along

00:13:59.940 like lithium and helium and vanadium and titanium

00:14:03.080 and so many different opportunities

00:14:04.460 out of the tailings ponds in northern Alberta.

00:14:06.200 You know, we could supply titanium in the world's,

00:14:11.620 to the world about 15 to 20% of the world's needs

00:14:15.100 on a yearly basis for about 40 or 50 years

00:14:16.980 just out of the oil sands.

00:14:18.240 There's some really, really cool stories

00:14:20.240 that are happening right now,

00:14:21.120 including lithium, as you know,

00:14:22.320 the lithium brine solution,

00:14:24.360 the, you know, the second or third time

00:14:25.760 we've used a lot of wells in southern

00:14:27.180 and central Alberta.

00:14:29.120 The, this is the Alberta story

00:14:30.580 is how do we continue to be productive,

00:14:33.360 continue to make sure that the people of Alberta

00:14:34.960 get the benefit of these resources,

00:14:37.320 which they own.

00:14:38.200 So, appreciate being here.

00:14:40.160 I want to thank the Premier.

00:14:42.460 She's just, she's, she's so tied in

00:14:45.780 with the energy file.

00:14:46.800 It's great to see because, you know,

00:14:49.560 Albertans really have a champion

00:14:50.720 in our Premier for them and for their jobs

00:14:53.280 and their quality of life.

00:14:54.600 So, proud to be part of that government.

00:14:56.560 Thanks a lot, Mr. Jean.

00:14:57.280 I really appreciate you taking the time with me today.

00:14:59.980 My pleasure.

00:15:00.500 Enjoy.

00:15:01.120 Take care.

00:15:01.440 Thank you.

00:15:02.040 You too.

00:15:02.480 Bye-bye.

00:15:02.660 Let me know in the comments

00:15:03.800 what you thought of Minister Jean's interview

00:15:06.300 and whether there was anything surprising

00:15:08.380 or noteworthy in your opinion.

00:15:10.640 That wraps up our special episode today.

00:15:12.940 Once again, my name's Isaac Lamoureux,

00:15:15.060 your host of the Alberta Roundup.

00:15:17.200 I hope you all had a Merry Christmas

00:15:19.040 and a Happy New Year's.

00:15:20.680 Have a great weekend.

00:15:21.840 Thank you and God bless.

00:15:23.080 May Alberta prosper strong and free.

00:15:33.800 Good明榜.

00:15:34.900 Good night.

00:15:46.840 Good night.

00:15:47.180 My voice is gonna be a flash.

00:15:48.860 I love you.

00:15:50.080 I love you.

00:15:50.800 Good night.

00:15:52.180 Good night.

00:15:52.900 I love you.

00:15:53.320 Good night.

00:15:53.820 Good night.

00:15:54.460 Good night.

00:15:55.020 Good鬼.

00:15:55.700 Good night.

00:15:56.600 Thank you.

00:15:56.860 Good night.

00:15:57.520 Good night.

00:15:58.840 Good night.

00:15:59.620 Good night.

00:16:00.080 Good night.

00:16:01.200 Good night.

00:16:02.140 Good night.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - January 04, 2025

How the Alberta gov is standing up for oil and gas

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript