Alberta Pension Plan ‘Giving a voice to constituents’
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
170.78552
Summary
Learn English with Minister of Affordability and Utilities, Nathan Neudorf. In this episode, he talks about the challenges facing Alberta's electricity grid, the need to stabilize electricity prices, and the need for an Alberta Pension Plan.
Transcript
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With me now is Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Affordability and of Utilities.
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Lord knows we care about utilities at the moment.
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Mr. Neudorf, how are things going at the conference today?
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It's great to see so many people here, how engaged they are,
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It definitely gives us courage that people really do care about the government of Alberta.
00:00:31.640
I'm going to ask you, it's been announced several times already,
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but I bet you would like to tell us again, how long is the gasoline relief lasting to now?
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It's going to the end of the year, and we're looking at the legislation to make that more permanent
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When you travel to BC, you certainly appreciate coming back to Alberta.
00:01:01.840
I don't think we're in trouble, but I do believe that the market was not responding appropriately.
00:01:08.040
So if you know anything about renewables, we have more renewables being built in Alberta than ever before,
00:01:14.800
and they typically bid into the market at $0 per megawatt.
00:01:17.960
But then we had the highest prices that we've ever had in the history of Alberta.
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To me, that says that the market wasn't working.
00:01:27.120
So we need to make sure that we correct that market.
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We make sure that we reduce volatility in pricing so we can get the lowest affordable price for all Albertans.
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So how does that integrate with more natural gas generators, or perhaps nuclear or run of the river?
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What have we got to do to make sure that the lights stay on and the heat stays on when it's cold and dark?
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Those generators have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into their assets.
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And if they have a very volatile pricing schedule that often is very, very low,
00:02:03.560
then when they do turn it on, they need prices to be very, very high to recover those capital costs.
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If we can stabilize that so they have certainty that they're going to recover their capital investment,
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then we'll see a stabilization in the market to make sure that we have an effective and competitive market
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with some certainty for those investments that they're going to recover those costs over a long period of time.
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And for Alberta, what is the problem with getting that done?
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Well, right now, we're facing a very hostile federal government wanting to bring in clean electricity regulations
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in a very accelerated time frame, which threatens that capital investment
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and is demanding significant further investment just to green our generation,
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which is in the magnitude for Alberta, somewhere between $200 and $400 billion.
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If you divide that by the number of customers in Alberta and put it over 12 years or less,
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it's going to make electricity prices very, very high and often unobtainable for those in Alberta.
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That's why we're doing the hard work to stand up for Albertans
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and make sure that we make this transition smartly and affordably.
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I'd like to turn the subject now to the Alberta pension plan.
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I noticed that the Premier didn't mention it during the keynote speech this afternoon,
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but I did notice that you pulled a minor splash the other day.
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Where do you stand on the Alberta pension plan, and what does it mean for your constituents?
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Yeah, I'm very supportive of an Alberta pension plan,
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but right now, the reason why I believe the Premier didn't mention it is we're consulting with Albertans.
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This is their choice, and while it would be, I believe, a very positive development for Albertans,
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I have many constituents who are proud to be Albertan,
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don't like how the federal government has treated them, but they're also proud Canadians.
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And while this move could be very, very beneficial for Albertans,
00:04:05.460
it may cause undue financial stress for other Canadians, and we're proud to be Canadians.
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So that's the conundrum, that's what many of my constituents have said to me,
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and that's my job as an elected official, to represent them.
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This isn't just about my personal opinion, this is about the people that I was elected to represent.
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I mean, the idea of an Alberta pension plan seems very logical when you listen to the Premier explain it.
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On the other hand, what your constituents are telling you seems very logical when you listen to them explain it.
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So how do you actually put these two together and come up with something that's going to work?
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Sure, and I think it is about listening, and it's about finding information and sharing that.
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And I believe the Minister of Finance and the team that's going around Alberta right now are helping to share all those findings.
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There are some who question those findings, and we have the federal government being one.
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So we've asked them, well, then you show us the work of what you think that calculation should be.
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And the Premier has committed that we need to have that final number before, if and when, we were ever to proceed to a referendum.
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So we want Albertans to have as much information as possible so that they can make the decision,
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a, whether to even proceed to a referendum, and b, if they were to go to a referendum, what their choice would be.
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When is the committee reporting back with its recommendations, the Jim Denning Committee?
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I believe that they have a six-month period of time which they'll be doing that work,
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and then they'll bring their findings back to government.
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Nathan Newdorf, Minister of Affordability and of Utilities,
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two supremely important ministries at this time in this province.