In this week's show, Western Standard's James Snell talks with Western Standard reporter Nigel Stewart about the Alberta government, the Alberta pension plan, and the challenges facing the premier, Danielle Smith, as she enters the new year.
00:00:53.720So, Nigel, in my early 20s, I became frustrated with the economy of British Columbia,
00:01:00.780specifically in the Kamloops area, so I thought maybe I should run for office.
00:01:05.200Nobody else was challenging the mayor at the time, so I ran for mayor of Kamloops, B.C.
00:01:09.940I came in second as a very young person and just had a wonderful education and a good time running for mayor.
00:01:19.740so what about your time at the uh at the war room and i think you were staffing brilliant
00:01:25.900brian gene as well weren't you right so i i i was uh the content producer at the canadian energy
00:01:31.820center and then i was a political staffer for brian gene but what predates that is actually
00:01:39.260my work in earth science so i started my working life as a mining exploration field technician so
00:01:46.620So taking soil samples, rock samples, looking for gold and base metals up in the Yukon, central BC, Vancouver Island.
00:01:56.660And so really I started my work life in very remote areas, jumping in and out of helicopters, sleeping in tents, working with wonderful people.
00:02:03.740And then after that, in the late 90s, I came to Alberta looking for a better life and better work.
00:02:13.600And I heard that well site geologists or geological consultants at well site supervising drilling were making $700 to $900 a day.
00:02:23.080So I thought, wouldn't that be great? So at the time, I had about six geology courses.
00:02:27.980I was a college dropout and I found favor actually in the oil patch and began a career as a geological consultant at well site.
00:02:38.960And so I did that for a long time, going to many small towns or remote areas and really taking care of the geological supervision of drilling for oil and gas wells.
00:02:51.600And so you've got credibility. There's no question about that.
00:02:55.500There are things I particularly want to ask you about the Alberta pension plan.
00:03:00.840How are the provinces doing? Are we going to end up with a deficit?
00:03:03.680And what do you see as Danielle Smith's biggest problems, or perhaps we should call them solution opportunities, in the year to come?
00:03:13.940So let's start with the premier. I say she's had a good month doing the prime minister's job on the border.
00:03:20.180They love her on Fox News. And you say?
00:03:23.540I think she's carrying herself like a head of state.
00:03:27.060She sounds great. She looks great. She's doing her job.
00:03:32.640And so, yeah, I think she's doing a good job.
00:03:35.520As far as the Alberta pension plan goes, you know, this is really still a dream that could happen in the distant future.
00:03:43.200It certainly has provoked the NDP as being quite unpopular.
00:03:48.300But I think in the grand scheme, the reason for an Alberta pension plan is that Canadian finances have been managed very poorly.
00:03:56.380And that poor management of Canadian finances has created a lot of worry in Alberta about the future existence of the Canadian pension plan, as I understand.
00:04:11.820Well, just in the week before Christmas, Canada's chief actuary gave an opinion and said that Alberta was not entitled to half of the assets of the Canada pension plan.
00:04:24.680And of course, the whole scheme was originally based upon receiving what we had overpaid over the decades into the CPP.
00:04:35.820But the actuary did say that we might be entitled to half of what we had been asking for, which I think is in the area of $200 billion was her number.
00:04:49.160That seems like it might be the basis for an Alberta pension plan.
00:04:55.860Do you think people here in Alberta want it?
00:05:52.200Actually, James, I thought that it was so surprising that they conceded that Alberta even had a case
00:05:59.000and that as much as $200 billion might be due us.
00:06:02.820For a federal civil servant to say that struck me as remarkable.
00:06:08.880But the thing is, this is something that is going to be a very hard sell across the rest of the country.
00:06:14.360One province would be perceived as getting what it wanted at the expense of all the others.
00:06:22.440A very difficult political decision for the national government,
00:06:27.500whether it's the liberal government, which obviously would reflexively react
00:06:33.300to anything that was proposed by Premier Smith,
00:06:37.860but difficult as well for a conservative government, don't you think?
00:06:42.760Well, sure. Nigel, this is still a dream that could or might happen sometime in the distant future. I think the Premier has bigger fish to fry. Right now, we have thousands of people pouring into Alberta every month from left-wing jurisdictions like Toronto and BC.
00:07:09.620These folks are settling in Calgary. They're settling in Edmonton. So if I were the premier,
00:07:14.660I would get busy winning over voters and making sure those seats are better off going into the
00:07:21.260next election. Yes. Well, you know, it's a weird thing that if you're so sick of the left-wing
00:07:28.360government in Ontario that you would move to Alberta and bring your left-wing point of view
00:07:32.740with you to kind of recreate what you just left behind here in the province of works. So it's hard
00:07:39.460to understand what what people are thinking but let's talk about a very
00:07:44.440important conservative value that the government of Alberta espouses it talks
00:07:50.620a good game about fiscal responsibility sure but even their friends at the
00:07:55.380Fraser Institute say they're spending too much money and if energy prices they
00:08:00.640don't have to collapse they just have to go down and the government will suddenly
00:08:05.560find itself in deficit. So you've been looking at the numbers. Are we heading for the rocks?
00:08:12.860Maybe. The Premier doesn't have a choice, though, Nigel. We've had upwards of half a million people
00:08:20.540come to Alberta over the last several years. That's more than the city of Red Deer.
00:08:27.700Or pardon me, that's like four or five equivalent red deers coming to to Alberta.1.00
00:08:37.220So, you know, that's a that's a problem and a blessing.
00:08:43.840So the premier government of Alberta, they've got to spend money on health care for these people.
00:08:50.680They've got to spend money on education for these folks.1.00
00:08:55.160So the province has no choice but to spend billions to support these newcomers.0.68
00:09:04.520Is this a good thing in the long term?
00:09:06.700I would argue yes, because a lot of these people are looking for the same things I was looking for when I came to Alberta.
00:09:43.160So Alberta prosperity, it's good, but it's a double-edged sword.
00:09:48.600As I say, I know when I came from B.C., as I crossed the border, I stopped the car, got out, looked at the sign, got down on my knees, kissed the ground, and carried on into Alberta.
00:10:00.060Let's just hope that people are glad to be here.
00:10:03.880Of course, they're going to be working, too, so they're going to be paying taxes.
00:10:13.160Does growth pay for itself? Does population growth pay for itself? In the long term, potentially.
00:10:22.000In the short term, you've got to build classrooms. You've got to build schools. You need a way of finding primary care doctors and nurses for hundreds of thousands of new people.
00:10:35.440so is our health care system in trouble yes it is can you write a check to solve that problem
00:10:47.940no you cannot there are there are broader issues so yeah yes so i mean broader issues like just
00:10:58.440finding people who can provide the service the doctors the nurses and everybody associated so
00:11:05.560there's a as people pour in there are there are some bills to be paid it's okay over the long run
00:11:12.520i think you're saying but in the immediate future there needs to be an investment and i think just
00:11:19.000about three months ago did she not make a an investment in new schools i believe it was
00:11:25.080billions yes yes okay but of course there's no satisfying the ndp right i mean we could turn
00:11:33.560alberta into a giant hospital and uh and a giant school and it still wouldn't be enough for the ndp
00:11:42.520that is that certainly so look all of these things if people are moving in they want to come in for
00:11:47.320work uh they want jobs they will pay taxes that's how it's financed and so we need to be strong on
00:11:54.280economic development let's uh we don't have unlimited time i want to ask you overall how
00:12:00.680you think this government is doing um premier smith obviously is uh what is it now two and a
00:12:07.880half years in office um seems very popular but are they meeting their goals and are people
00:12:14.840getting what they voted for well i think the situation in alberta is dynamic and constantly
00:12:22.360changing uh you know particularly as we see uh thousands of people coming to the province every
00:12:28.120month so uh as far as the the dynamic changes that are happening uh alberta government's doing
00:12:35.560a great job i think um you know as far as the the overall economy i think they're doing a good job
00:12:47.400well let's be a little bit more specific here there are some issues which are very important
00:12:54.200they're ideological issues that uh very important to premier smith and the people closest to her for
00:13:00.820example uh the reconstruction of the health system the sovereignty act the amendments to
00:13:09.380the alberta human rights act um but when you you talk to people on the street yeah that's great
00:14:06.640And so even having a conversation about finances and whether or not we have enough money to bankroll health care, education, programs for immigration, even having that conversation is a little bit depressing, given the fact of the wealth that we are sitting on.
00:14:29.220And I hope that Albertans wake up, and I hope that the Premier and her staff wake up to the fact that we are an extraordinarily wealthy jurisdiction.
00:14:45.960We should be at the top of the stack, not just in Canada, but we should be at the top of the stack globally.
00:14:56.120Right now, Alberta is a beacon of hope, once again, for people from all over Canada.
00:15:01.480There's a reason people are coming here, Nigel.
00:15:03.840They're coming to Alberta because it's a land of opportunity, as it has been over the decades.
00:15:09.220And so, it's, you know, people are coming here for hope.
00:15:14.440And so, if the Premier can get re-elected, this is all.
00:15:19.820I'm not going to get the rise of that, why people do come here.
00:15:22.260It's why you came here, it's why I came here.
00:15:23.980But it doesn't alter the fact that in a resource-based economy, which we are, when prices are up, we have money, and then we start to pay more for things.
00:15:36.680And then when prices drop, we still have those bills, but we no longer have the revenue, and we start slipping into deficit.
00:15:47.160I mean, I remember the great day when Rolf Klein held up that big piece of plywood debt paid.
00:15:52.720do you know that was only 20 years ago and of course you've seen the fluctuations in the economy
00:15:58.820since then it left us where we are what's the current provincial debt 80 billion 70 billion
00:16:04.960something like that yeah we shouldn't be in debt no i agree but so obviously that we we haven't
00:16:12.580learned to put the money away when we're doing well for when we are not doing well you know
00:16:21.540Nigel, I think there will all we all know there's going to be ups and downs in the economy. There will be ups and downs and commodity prices. And so we're going to have to, as they say, make hay while the sun shines. But we are, it seems that Alberta is doing a fairly good job of economic diversification.
00:16:40.680We have booming tech center in in Calgary. We've got AI data centers potentially being built that are absolutely enormous that could generate an untold employment and tax revenue.
00:16:54.360So I think we're doing a good job. But here's here's the fact is that the world is going to need oil and gas for decades and decades and decades to come.
00:17:07.260Alberta has some of the largest oil and largest natural gas reserves on the planet.
00:17:17.700So what we need to do is we need to get more of this product, not just to our American neighbors, but we need to get this to international markets.
00:17:26.220And that means playing ball with whoever they elect in British Columbia.
00:17:33.480But we've got one natural LNG project coming online on the West Coast of BC, while the rest of the world has entered this market, which is critical.
00:17:47.520And I might add, Nigel, that natural gas is a lot cleaner burning than coal.
00:17:52.360And there are hundreds of coal fired power sites being built all over the world right now.
00:17:56.580So we need to get much cleaner Canadian natural gas out to international markets.
00:18:02.480And we need to have six, seven, eight, nine, 10 LNG sites out on the West Coast, because we have a lot to offer the world. And so in some ways, and it frustrates me to say this, we have this Montany play, and we have the analogs of the Montany, but we really have more than we need.
00:18:25.560And this product needs to go to the rest of the world.
00:18:30.840And if we can figure out a way to do that, if we can get our shit together in confederation, then Alberta and Canada will be a lot better off financially.
00:18:41.940So this wealth isn't just for Alberta.
00:18:46.640And the fact that we are sitting on at least two Saudi Arabias and running a trillion dollar plus national debt is a joke and it is a travesty.1.00
00:19:01.060Canada is a wealthy country. Alberta is a wealthy jurisdiction and people need to realize that.
00:19:08.920And getting that product out to international markets is not a sin. It's a good thing.
00:19:13.720Well, I think you have just lifted us out of the area of provincial jurisdiction and into the area of how are we going to get rid of a federal government that prevents us from doing all the good things that you have just described.