Learn English with Jason Kenney, United Conservative Party President and Prime Minister of Alberta. In this speech, he talks about the challenges we ve all faced and how we ve come through them to become stronger together. .
00:41:58.260And we are developing a strategy to do just that.
00:42:00.640This includes continued rollout of our successful vaccine program, it includes Minister Kotbien's work to expand intensive care capacity in our health care system, it includes much wider availability of rapid testing across the province, and it includes earlier and more widespread use of therapeutics, like monoclonal antibody treatments, plus other drugs as soon as they are approved.
00:42:24.360fellow albertans together we are overcoming this time of trial and emerging from it stronger than
00:42:35.800ever as soon as our government took office in the spring of 2019 we began laying the building blocks
00:42:42.200of our economic recovery through the elimination of the ndp's job killing carbon tax bill number one
00:42:48.280through the job creation tax cut which has given alberta one of the most attractive
00:42:52.760tax rates for new investment in any place in north america through the red yes please
00:43:01.720through the red tape production action plan through which we've already eliminated get
00:43:06.040this we don't celebrate it enough we've already eliminated 20 of the regulatory burden on alberta's
00:43:12.120economy cutting 120 000 rules we've gone from an f to an a on the cfib's canadian red tape report card
00:43:22.760I see some small business people standing up to applaud that one.
00:43:29.800We rebalanced Alberta's labour legislation.
00:43:32.880We repealed the Bill 6 NDP attack on our farmers by passing the Farm Freedom and Safety Act.
00:43:45.740We're implementing our Fairness for Newcomers action plan to help new Canadians get to work0.98
00:43:51.760at their skill level to achieve their dreams and contribute fully to our prosperity.
00:44:00.660We created the Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, which is helping First Nations
00:44:06.380become not just participants, but owners of major resource projects
00:44:11.520to move their people from poverty to prosperity, which is the great moral cause of our time.
00:50:50.340Last month, we produced, shipped, and sold more Alberta oil than at any time in our history.
00:51:06.300We've seen the completion of Line 3 replacement, and TMX is on track.
00:51:12.140And let me pause there as well to send a message to our friends in the United States.
00:51:16.960You know, we had President Biden vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have safely delivered 840,000 barrels a day of responsibly produced Alberta energy to U.S. markets.
00:51:34.080He vetoed that in January, and now he is begging and pleading with the OPEC dictatorships and Putin's Russia to increase production and shipments to the United States.
00:51:47.840He's pleading with developed countries to open their strategic petroleum reserves.
00:51:53.800He's lifted sanctions on Russia, building their gas pipeline to Western Europe to dominate strategically Western European energy interests.
00:52:03.040He's lifting sanctions on American investment in offshore Venezuelan heavy oil development.
00:52:10.740President Biden, we Albertans have a message for you.
00:52:13.760If you don't have enough oil, we Albertans are happy to help out.
00:52:28.320it. And by the way, by the way, did you know the Keystone XL pipeline, it was going to deliver
00:52:37.720840,000 barrels a day of energy produced at the world's highest environmental human rights and
00:52:43.440labor standards. But today, the United States is importing 840,000 barrels of dirty conflict oil
00:52:50.160from Putin's Russia. It doesn't make any sense, but we should, we won't relent. We will continue
00:52:56.340to fight for common sense in global energy markets friends our farmers had a tough year
00:53:04.820but with weather but still but still we are seeing the strongest investment ever in at the agri-food
00:53:12.100sector with new food processing plants and we are working on a billion dollars of additional
00:53:17.460investment that will ensure a vital future for that historic industry and how about after a
00:53:23.460tough year how about a big round of applause to all of the farmers and ranchers who feed us every
00:53:28.980single day we thank you guys and we love you the forestry industry in alberta is having its best
00:53:50.580year ever and major investments are on the way we have the fastest growing high-tech sector in
00:53:56.980north america just in the past few months billions of dollars of amount announcements for new high
00:54:03.860tech ventures here in alberta from major global companies including two weeks ago by far the
00:54:11.780largest investment in high tech or digital in the history of our province a 4.3 billion dollar
00:54:18.980investment from amazon web services that will create five billion dollars of economic activity
00:54:24.340create a minimum of a thousand jobs and puts alberta on the global mac as a map as a global
00:54:30.660tech leader we're having the best year ever in in venture capital investment that's the jet fuel
00:54:42.180of the startup economy of the innovation uh businesses we are having the best year ever
00:54:48.020by far in Alberta's film and television industry thanks in part to our expansion of the film and
00:54:53.540television tax credit. We've gone from about 150 million dollars a year in investment there
00:54:58.680to a billion dollars a year right now. We have eight major productions including the largest
00:55:04.180production ever filmed in Canada, HBO's The Last of Us. We are seeing an entire new industry take
00:55:13.340route driving for diversification filling up hospitals excuse me filling up well maybe the
00:55:19.100last of us it is a zombie movie filling up hotels it's a zombie movie and so by the way if you see
00:55:27.240if you see zombies wandering around in your community don't worry uh it they're just actors
00:55:32.920it's not the ndp caucus it's a joke it's a joke i'll probably get into trouble on that
00:55:41.760And how about this? A month ago, we announced the largest private sector investment in Alberta in a decade and a half with the Dow Chemicals net zero emitting ethylene cracker and processor in the industrial heartland east of Edmonton, one of multiple huge new petrochemical projects.
00:56:02.660And I can assure you, many more are coming.
00:56:06.020Minister Nalli, Minister Savage and I are working on those.
00:56:09.560And last week, we announced the $2.5 billion investment by Northern Petrochemicals in Greenview County
00:56:16.480that will create 4,000 upfront jobs, 400 high-paying ongoing jobs, another net zero project.
00:56:23.980All of these projects helping us to improve our environmental performance,
00:56:28.140which helps us to get access to capital for our energy sector.
00:56:32.660while ensuring a future demand for natural gas,
00:56:36.060which means more drilling and work for service companies,
00:56:39.360and creating products that are in demand
00:56:41.420that we get to ship all around the world.
00:56:43.360It is a win, win, win, a win for the environment,
00:56:46.460a win for jobs, a win for diversification,
00:56:50.460And that's before I even get to the Alberta future
00:56:54.160around the hydrogen economy, a $2.5 trillion economy.
00:56:58.280And folks, we've already had five significant investments.
00:57:02.420There are many more in the hopper, and I believe that between now and 2030, Alberta will have established itself as the center of the multi-trillion dollar future hydrogen economy.
00:57:44.280But for Albertans, this tells them that hope really is here for our future.
00:57:49.380Many more major investments are close to landing.
00:57:52.540And none of this is happening by accident.
00:57:55.020Friends, there's one simple message in all of this.
00:57:57.560Alberta is back. Alberta is rising. Alberta is on a roll.
00:58:04.080Now, friends, let me say that all of this has been thanks to, in part, your hard work
00:58:30.400to electing this government and forming its policy agenda and through all of this that
00:58:35.200i've just talked about we have continued to work around the clock to keep our commitments
00:58:40.640to albertans in the most ambitious and detailed platform ever presented to voters in an election
00:58:46.960in two and a half years we have completed uh or made major progress on 304 of 372 platform
00:58:55.520commitments that's 82 percent already completed with another year and a half to go
00:59:03.120and i want to thank i want to thank our caucus your caucus your mlas for making this happen
00:59:11.040we have passed over a hundred bills through alberta's legislature to make this possible
00:59:16.800that is more legislative work than any legislature or the parliament of canada throughout the
00:59:22.320COVID crisis. We have worked harder and done more to keep these commitments. These policies were
00:59:28.040inspired by you, the grassroots members of this party, and I can't wait to see the ideas that
00:59:33.140emerge from this room throughout the course of this weekend. And let me give you an example of
00:59:38.360some of the areas where we have kept those commitments. Fiscal responsibility. It's easy
00:59:43.540to forget in all of the tumult of the past two years how we inherited a fiscal crisis from the
00:59:48.580spendthrift NDP, but through carefully controlled spending, led by our brilliant
00:59:54.240finance minister, Travis Tays. Sure, give Travis a hand.
01:00:02.540And hard work by all ministers and caucus. We have made difficult choices. And you know,
01:00:07.980some of them, yes, some of them are controversial and drew criticism. But we always knew that would
01:00:13.700be the case. We know that governing isn't easy unless you avoid the hard decisions.
01:00:17.860We were elected to take some hard decisions, so we have carefully controlled spending,
01:00:23.160and I believe that Travis will be presenting to Albertans a radically improved fiscal situation in his February budget.
01:00:29.680We restored parental rights in the education system, and we brought in the Choice in Education Act.
01:00:35.640the choice in education act that says for the first time in alberta law that we recognize as
01:00:50.200a fundamental human right that parents have the first say in how best to educate their children
01:00:55.920we have created new charter schools getting back to alberta's tradition of innovation and
01:01:04.960competition to drive better results for students to prepare them well for their future. And I think
01:01:12.580most importantly, I stood before you in May of 2018 to say that we would stop the NDP's ideological
01:01:22.480left-wing politicized rewrite of the school curriculum. We kept our word. We stopped it.
01:01:29.780And we stopped it in its tracks and we are now presenting Albertans with a thoughtful and balanced curriculum to prepare young people with the skills of reading and writing, math and numeracy, and a balanced view of Canadian identity and history of civic literacy to set young people up for success.
01:01:50.060Thank you, Minister LaGrange, for all that you are doing.
01:01:59.780On democratic reforms, we kept our word and have passed into law a Citizens Initiative Act that
01:02:12.700allows Albertans to go straight to a referendum vote on issues if the legislature is not listening.
01:02:19.620We passed the recall law, which will be brought into force in the next few weeks. We kept our
01:02:26.360commitment to renew our tradition of senate democracy and with our elections last month
01:02:32.600and how about a big congratulatory round of applause for the three top vote getters who
01:02:38.420i believe are all with us here today to pam davidson erica barudis and michael martiniuk
01:05:51.580we've appointed in that we've created an alberta parole board we've appointed an
01:05:54.860alberta chief firearms officer to have a common sense alberta perspective
01:05:58.940on the application of firearms federal firearms legislation
01:06:03.100and yes we held in october we kept our commitment
01:06:06.940to let Albertans pass their judgment on our fair deal in the Federation to vote yes on a fair deal
01:06:15.740by voting on equalization. That vote was ratified by the legislature and we now
01:06:21.100formally begin the process of demanding negotiations for a fair deal so that we
01:06:26.620can develop the resources that pay so many of the bills in the Canadian Federation.
01:06:36.940and we will not relent finally we continue to do the important work of examining the possibility
01:06:50.580of exercising even more powers like through the creation of an alberta provincial police force
01:06:57.080which i believe would give us amazing advantage of local community policing and i encourage all
01:07:03.960of you to look at the model that Minister Madhu has presented, which would have greater integration
01:07:08.200of social services, of alternative drug treatment courts, of child wellness services, of Indigenous
01:07:15.780oversight as well, into police governance. How about, just imagine this, a day when a kid who
01:07:23.100grows up in Wataskawin, who wants to serve her community as a police officer, can go to an0.89
01:07:30.420Alberta Police Academy, come back home and serve the community that she knows so well for the
01:07:37.360balance of her life, of her career, rather than the revolving door that we currently have? How
01:07:42.820about community policing to keep our communities safe? I think it's an idea worth exploring.
01:07:52.380And Minister Tays continues to do important work on the very significant potential benefits
01:07:59.460to Alberta's economy of a provincial pension plan.
01:08:03.960So friends, altogether, what I'm saying is promises made and promises kept.
01:08:09.980We still have more work to do, and that is where we must focus on the next 18 months.
01:08:15.440Now, as I close, let me say, we all know that there will be a leadership review vote next spring,
01:08:20.760and I want you to know, I welcome that.
01:08:22.760I embrace that opportunity for accountability.
01:08:25.260I have tried imperfectly from the beginning of the Unite Alberta movement to offer my own background in a spirit of servant leadership.
01:08:37.320And ultimately, the members of this party will decide what they want to do.
01:08:41.840Whether or not you want leadership renewal will be your decision next spring.
01:08:45.820I just have one request for each and every one of us, which is between now and then, let us focus our efforts and our attention on the people's business, on the priorities of Albertans.
01:08:59.760We have some internal differences. Every Big Ten political party does and always will.
01:09:05.480But let us address and resolve those internal differences internally because the public wants to see parties and government focused not on internal party business, but on the public's priorities, on the crisis that we are facing, on economic recovery.
01:09:29.760i believe i believe that at the next election we continue with the momentum that we have in
01:09:46.480this province albertans will look at the strongest economic record uh in the federation the strongest
01:09:54.160economic growth in alberta in in over a decade they will look at uh job incredible job creation
01:10:02.960and new investment they will see a government that has kept its commitments to make life better for
01:10:08.320albertans to fight for a fair deal uh to focus on jobs the economy and pipelines and if we can stick
01:10:15.760to the things that we were sent to edmonton to do i believe we will be favorably judged by albertans
01:10:21.920but let us focus on the people's business and let us all be united and resolved in our belief
01:10:29.520in the future of this province so many of alberta's critics have been kicking us while we
01:10:35.360were down so so many of those who have benefited from our prosperity and generosity have criticized
01:10:42.000this province at every turn but i say to those critics alberta is back alberta is on the rise
01:10:49.280Alberta is honourable and with your continued support I believe that we will move forward in
01:10:55.200the renewal of this province as a great land of hope, opportunity and prosperity for decades to
01:11:01.520come. God bless you and God bless Alberta. Thank you very much.