00:01:10.640One, there's the pipeline upon which so many revenue hopes are riding, but which, because of Ottawa's demand for green conditions, may never get built.
00:01:18.880Secondly, there's the impossible Ottawa demand that by 2050, Alberta must have a net-neutral energy grid.
00:01:27.020Impossible because of the third thing, population growth driven by Ottawa.
00:01:32.060It was challenging enough when there were three million Albertas, which is what the population here was only five years ago, in July 2000.
00:01:43.660Now there are more than five million people living here.
00:01:47.080That's the insane population growth that Premier Smith is talking about now, and it's not slowing down.
00:01:54.760You see the effects in schools, in the health services.
00:01:57.960You might even see it soon with energy security.
00:02:01.400Providing power for an extra two million people in five years, when you're looking at 10 years to get approvals to even start building something, is incredible.
00:02:10.520So we're going to talk about that, and meanwhile, we have a globalist prime minister who wants to cut ties with America, Alberta's biggest customer.
00:02:19.100He's a proponent of global financial cooperation, climate-focused finance reform.
00:02:25.400Economically, he's a Keynesian, and there's no problem borrowing money, and he's a liberal, and Alberta is almost 100% conservative.
00:02:33.720I think we've got plenty to talk about.
00:02:35.300But Erica, before we get into that, Matt Jenneru crossed the floor yesterday.
00:02:42.940Now, I think you've got some history with Mr. Jenneru, do you not?
00:02:49.620So I'm not going to call it crossing the floor.
00:02:52.020I'm going to call it unresigning his resign seat that he talked about in November.
00:02:57.580So he was not only crossing a floor to the Liberals, a party that has never been elected in Edmonton Riverbend, but also that he, like, undid his resignation that he put out in November, stating that he wanted to spend and focus more time on his family.
00:03:15.940Maybe his family was like, no, we're good.
00:03:24.680So my history with him is actually Matt Jenneru, his wife and I, actually all worked together at the legislature in, I think, 2011.
00:03:33.200He then ran as an MLA for part of the writing in which he now represents as an MP.
00:03:38.820Under the Progressive Conservative Party, he's been a attendee or supporter of the UCP during my time as president and then has been a member of parliament for the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:04:40.920I just I think this is, you know, one, I wish that if someone wanted to cross the floor, they've got to sit in as an independent or a by-election is is struck.
00:04:50.960He alluded to having a by-election into stepping down in two months from now and then retracted that because he got a maybe shiny new offer.
00:04:59.680Or perhaps he thought that maybe his skeletons weren't going to come out of the closet and it was safe to cross the floor now versus November.
00:05:06.480But I do think it's just a very sad thing for democracy.
00:05:10.920It's a very sad thing for the people of Edmonton Riverbend.
00:05:14.460There was interest by both the liberals and the conservatives to have a true by-election, which Matt committed to, and then revoked when he felt it was opportunistic for him to do so.
00:05:24.540You just used the magic word, skeletons.
00:05:28.440Come on, you can't just leave us hanging.
00:07:56.720Well, there's all these things that seem to be stacked up, making it hard for Alberta to do what Alberta wants to do under the leadership of Premier Smith.
00:08:07.520I'm not sure that it makes that much difference who is Premier of Alberta.
00:08:13.560It didn't seem to do so when it was Rachel Notley in power, the liberal government.
00:08:19.620And I'm calling it the liberal government, including the Trudeau years, because there's been a consistency of approach, especially as regards Alberta under the new management.
00:08:31.420It just seems to be set up to make it difficult for us to succeed, more likely to fail.
00:08:37.200So do you think the liberals are, in fact, intentionally setting Alberta up to fail, wrapping up our costs by higher immigration?
00:09:09.800So I think it's a good question to ask, because I would say under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the wanting to punish Alberta or do introduce policies that have malicious intent against Alberta and Western Canada is definitely, I would say it was definitely proactive in order to do that.
00:09:38.500Under Mark Carney, I don't know if it's just lack of policy and politics by him that is trying to do like one step forward that equals two steps back.
00:09:53.940I mean, he's had no problem kind of poo-pooing his own party's previous policies on some level and wanting to maybe make it appear that he wants to play ball with Alberta or with Western Canada.
00:10:13.160But it almost is like in spirit or in symbolism rather than actual tangible things.
00:10:21.640So I think he's in a place where he's going to have to, you know, do the business or get off the pot and pick a lane on is he going to give Alberta and Canada's economic economy what it can do to thrive?
00:10:39.340Or is he just giving a bunch of falsehoods?
00:10:41.920I don't think he's doing it maliciously in the same way his predecessor did.
00:10:45.900But I do think there's some poor policies that if he's truly serious about this, he's going to have to use his constitutional power to make this happen, including access to Tidewater.
00:10:58.820And it doesn't appear to me that he's wanting to do it.
00:11:01.160He's wanting to say the right things, but not do the hard work.
00:11:03.480Okay, well, that's one way of looking at it, all right.
00:11:08.000You did say that he was not doing it maliciously, but it's possible to do it intentionally, but without malice.
00:11:55.200And although he says, well, yes, we can do the pipelines, they have to contain decarbonized oil, which is oil for which there has been a compensating amount of carbon dioxide buried in the ground.
00:12:20.040And oil is not so expensive that the producers can absorb that cost.
00:12:25.900So really saying, well, you can do it, but you've got to do it with one hand tied behind your back.
00:12:29.820And then, of course, other people are going to have a competitive advantage, and you're not going to be able to sell any.
00:12:34.780So he makes it sound as if he's all for development, but actually it has to be done in such a way that it's unprofitable, and therefore he's not in favor of development.
00:12:49.640This is a federal policy that's driving immigration.
00:12:52.640And I know the premier is talking about it right now.
00:12:56.400So if you expand the population that much, don't let them make money.
00:13:01.020You've got a prime minister who's actively working against you, and you're saying he's, well, just am I misunderstanding the man here?
00:13:13.820No, I think that's a good point on intent versus malice.
00:13:18.500And I would say, you know, I feel like he's not giving a to our face FU to Alberta like Justin Trudeau did, but he might be actually then worse based on what you're saying is that he's doing it, you know, when we turn around and he's doing it behind our backs.
00:13:36.280And so I hope that's not the case, but I'm seeing that even you saw this MOU, which I felt was a good symbolic, not, you know, all the tactics and rollout or true progress of moving the needle.
00:13:50.700I saw the MOU as a great first step, but what we've seen now is actually kind of a pivot in some of his economic or energy policies.
00:14:03.020I mean, he just got back from China where he's now agreed to significant EV investment.
00:14:11.420And we've seen then, like, what does that mean?
00:14:13.420Does he think that that can replace part of the energy mandate that he's been talking about?
00:14:18.940And I fear that that's the case, that they're going to invest more in the production of EVs and the use of lithium, which we have in Alberta, over the oil and gas sector.
00:14:32.500And so I think he's a little bit, he's a little bit sneakier, maybe.
00:14:38.300And I don't know if it's ignorance or corporate strategy that he's used in the past.
00:14:44.900But it does look like he says more of the things that Alberta wants to hear, but is actually doing as little as Justin Trudeau to move that needle.
00:14:57.220Example, I mean, he said that they would provide consent, not just consultation to the First Nation coastal tribes that are standing in the way of a new pipeline.
00:15:07.180And they're looking at, you know, trying to pivot away and look at focus down here where the TMX is, as opposed to up north, where we already have other pipelines that are not oil and gas that we could run along the line.
00:15:22.320So it seems like he's over-promising and under-delivering, where Justin Trudeau's commitment was just like, I don't like you and I don't care.
00:15:29.700And I don't know which is worse for Alberta.
00:15:33.260Well, I guess I would argue that Mr. Carney's pose is a little worse because he is personable.
00:15:45.080He seems, as Mr. Trudeau seemed like a teenager who'd stolen the keys of the Ferrari and was doing damage.
00:15:55.600Mr. Carney does seem like the adult in the room.
00:15:58.880Can't believe I'm saying this, but he does, you see.
00:16:01.100But when you are the adult in the room and you lean forward and assure people that we're doing the right thing, there's a tendency for them to believe it, where it was very easy under Mr. Trudeau to realize what the problem was.
00:17:07.700So, you know, we constantly have these weights on our ankles as we try to go jogging.
00:17:14.640And it is incredibly hard for the government of Alberta.
00:17:20.120It's incredibly hard for Danielle Smith.
00:17:22.120But it could be the same with whoever the premier was.
00:17:26.840You keep getting more piled on you as you're trying to catch up.
00:17:30.680Now, Mr. Carney has a way of expressing the challenge, which makes you think that perhaps it's all perfectly reasonable in just one of those things.
00:18:21.200His training wheels can no longer be used as an excuse.
00:18:25.080Because I do think he's more strategic.
00:18:28.640And I think that he's now, like I said, over-promising, under-delivering.
00:18:32.760To immigration, he acknowledged the problem that I think Justin Trudeau wasn't willing to acknowledge.
00:18:38.580That we do have basically an open-door immigration policy that needs to be reformed.
00:18:44.080But when you look at the immigration website under the Government of Canada, their targets that they set for themselves under Mark Carney are being destroyed in Q1 or Q2.
00:18:56.760Like they're already surpassed what they're saying their levels are.
00:19:00.680And so it's one thing to say we're going to fix this problem and then really do nothing about it when you have stated you acknowledge the problem and that reform is required.
00:19:12.660It doesn't seem like they're slowing anything down.
00:19:15.320I would say Alberta can be a proof point that, you know, 250,000, almost 300,000 new individuals in a year means that since Mark Carney took office and right before at the end of Prime Minister Trudeau's tenure, that they weren't doing anything to fix it.
00:19:31.960And we were seeing a flood of the individuals that were here having their family members come over and getting quickly processed because there was someone here to vouch for them.
00:19:41.100And to me, that's even more concerning as the one quick process and to the speed in which that number can grow.
00:19:49.160So quickly because one person has a family and they're bringing them over and that can go from one individual here to 10 with no safeguards, no guarantee of employment.
00:20:00.780I think that's the other challenge where a lot of individuals that want to come here want to be able to contribute to the economy.
00:20:07.000But at this volume and at this lax of policy, we're actually getting people that are using and leaning on the system more than we have people contributing.
00:20:17.300And absolutely, someone needs to take leadership and drastically reverse this because it's only going to get worse before it can get better.
00:20:25.000Well, I'm going to just say what I wish Janiel Smith could say, but probably dare not because people would just tell her she was trying to excuse something that wasn't very well performed.
00:20:38.100But the reforms that she has made in healthcare and in education would, I think, have met her objectives if our population was that three to three and a half million that it was when she took office.
00:20:54.800But if you have another million and a half people piled in on top, of course, you're going to find that all the improvements you've made in the way health is administered, the way education is done, are just going to be swallowed up by all the new people here.
00:21:13.340Do you think she's able to use that reasoning?
00:21:15.900It's a tough one because I know as she, you know, gives a address to Albertans and we'll talk about the significant influx of population that has crippled some of these systems.
00:21:30.880I mean, look at some of her policies. I think she's doing it indirectly and I applaud it where she has put putting citizenship on license plates, aligning it with your health card because there's more health card numbers or health numbers out there than there is population.
00:21:49.540And then that means to me that there's individuals abusing the system or that there's administrative errors that we need to correct.
00:21:56.060Either way, it's a problem that needs to be addressed. And so by really understanding the impact of what immigration and emigration or migration has on our population is proof points that I think she could use.
00:22:11.940Just right now, I think that as I sit here and say, yeah, we should prioritize Canadians for employment, we should prioritize Albertans first, we should look at giving our support services to people that are Canadian citizens over people that just moved here.
00:22:28.640In many circles, you get called a racist for that.
00:22:31.040It's almost like it's almost like we forget that every color can be an immigrant, but that the left labels it as this is ignorance and tries to compare us or pit us similar to the U.S.
00:22:45.240And I think that unfortunately that's working, that makes it more difficult for Peter Smith to call a spade a spade.
00:22:51.760I agree with you. Look, we're almost out of time.
00:22:54.400Last question. I noticed that in the press, we are still referring to this government led by Mr. Carney as a new government.
00:23:06.040Now, in actual fact, it's the same government 10 years old who's had a new leader for a year.
00:23:11.320But even if you say it's a new government, is it still a new government after only a year with Mr. Carney at the helm?
00:23:20.660How long before we make Mr. Carney accountable for what has happened on his watch or not happened?
00:23:30.660You didn't see Danielle Smith getting that out and saying it was a new government.
00:23:34.720She had to wear everything that happened under the UCP from 2019 onwards.
00:23:39.000And so I say that that is a media spin by a party that funds you and the CBC driving a narrative that is completely unfair.
00:23:52.400A year when you have a minority government is like dog years, right?
00:23:57.920You've got to prove to keep things moving.
00:24:00.040And in our system, it's legislated that it must happen constitutionally by five years, likely by four for a federal election.
00:24:07.840Do we really leave training wheels on for one fourth of someone's lifespan?
00:24:12.120No. So I think it's, you know, since his first budget, I think the newbie card is it should be eliminated.
00:24:21.100I also think that it should be even faster than that, given that everyone surrounding Mark Carney was part of the previous administration, with the exception of Deebo leaving and Trudeau, right?
00:24:33.380Patricia Freeland is still getting job offers and finally removing herself.
00:24:42.660I think that it's media spin to give the grace that maybe some of us that even will never agree with Mark Carney gave him in hopes that he could fix Western alienation.
00:24:54.720But now I just think he courted Alberta in a way that he was never planning to make us go steady with them.