Western Standard - Jason Kenney's Keynote Address live from the UCP AGM 2021

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00:30:00.000 Today, as your president,

00:30:28.720 it is my great honour to introduce you to our leader, Jason Kenney.

00:30:42.980 A proud Albertan, a proud public servant, and the man who built this United Conservative Party.

00:30:49.620 As we all know, and I think this is an understatement, it isn't easy bringing

00:31:00.620 conservatives together. We admire our leader's determination. We acknowledge and applaud his

00:31:07.780 voracious work ethic. We are fortunate to have a leader with such strong conservative values

00:31:14.680 who has dedicated his life to the principles that are the foundation of this party.

00:31:21.640 Jason, as the new president and a proud member of the UCP,

00:31:25.840 and on behalf of everyone in attendance today, I'd like to thank you for your leadership.

00:31:31.540 your tenacity your tenacity and commitment to Alberta and all Albertans

00:31:45.720 ladies and gentlemen I welcome Jason Kenney to the podium

00:32:01.540 Thank you so much.

00:32:28.080 Isn't it great to have the Conservative family all together back in one room again?

00:32:34.040 It is so great to see you folks, all of you friends from across this great province.

00:32:38.880 First of all, thank you, Cynthia.

00:32:41.020 And congratulations on your acclamation as our new party president.

00:32:45.800 I'll tell you, it's not easy to be acclaimed.

00:32:48.660 This is a sign of great respect for Cynthia and a lifetime of servant leadership to this province and to this movement.

00:32:54.900 Thank you so much, Cynthia.

00:32:58.080 And how about not just a big hand for her, also as convention chair, but for the dozens 0.99

00:33:05.400 of volunteers who have worked for months and who are helping to bring us here together.

00:33:10.780 How about a big round of applause to all of those grassroots conservative volunteers.

00:33:16.760 Boy, I have to just pause to say, we were still, the board was still debating a few

00:33:25.400 weeks ago whether we should be doing this online or in person and we wondered what wondered whether

00:33:30.120 enough people would actually come in per in person this is an overflow crowd that is a sign of the

00:33:35.080 strength of alberta's conservative movement thank you friends today i want to talk to you about the

00:33:44.440 challenging times that we have all been through and how we are emerging from them alberta strong

00:33:50.440 But first, let me thank our wonderful hosts here at the Great Eagle, the Tsutsina First Nation.

00:33:58.180 Thank you for welcoming us here to traditional Treaty 7 territory.

00:34:07.900 A week ago, we marked Remembrance Day, honoring the sacrifice of our glorious fallen and all who have served in our uniform to defend us.

00:34:17.680 One of those men was Harold Crochild.

00:34:21.420 Harold was born on the Tsitsina Reserve in 1915,

00:34:25.060 and he enlisted in the Canadian Army to fight fascist evil in 1942.

00:34:31.420 Proud of his indigenous roots and heritage,

00:34:34.400 he crossed the sea to unite with Canadians of all backgrounds in that epic endeavor.

00:34:40.400 Harold operated Sherman tanks in the liberation of France, Holland, and Germany

00:34:44.660 before returning home as a highly decorated veteran

00:34:48.080 to become a respected elder of this First Nation.

00:34:52.160 We honor the bravery and the patriotism of Harold Crowchild,

00:34:56.540 and we are inspired by the spirit of unity in diversity

00:35:00.300 that drove him and hundreds of thousands of young Canadians to victory.

00:35:06.160 Harold and his generation overcame great adversity to win that victory.

00:35:10.420 many of the soldiers he fought with grew up on hard scrabble farms in the dirty 30s

00:35:16.200 in what we would now consider abject poverty and Harold himself he emerged from a community here

00:35:23.860 that had been devastated by the injustice of the Indian residential school system

00:35:28.800 but together Harold and his comrades struggled through adversity and they emerged together

00:35:35.760 united and victorious as proud Canadians. They were resilient and were united by a great cause.

00:35:43.240 Friends, we Albertans have been through our own time of great adversity. For five years,

00:35:49.620 we struggled through economic decline and stagnation, prolonged and deepened by the

00:35:54.160 job-killing policies of the Not Lead Trudeau Alliance. People had lost their homes, their

00:35:59.580 businesses, and many had given up on Alberta altogether, picking up and leaving the province.

00:36:05.760 Then, then, we were sideswiped by the triple whammy that no one saw coming, the worst public

00:36:13.340 health crisis in a century, the deepest global recession since the 1930s, and the biggest

00:36:19.820 collapse in energy prices ever.

00:36:23.140 This crisis challenged each and every one of us deeply.

00:36:28.180 We mourn the lives of those that have been lost.

00:36:32.500 we regret how covet has dislocated our lives separated us from loved ones

00:36:38.500 thrown many into despair and caused so much incalculable damage

00:36:44.900 let's not sugarcoat it some of that damage has been inflicted inflicted on our government

00:36:50.420 and our party like every government in the world we have sought to lead through

00:36:55.940 covid by trial and error often faced with only bad choices we've been in uncharted territory

00:37:03.460 combating an ever-changing viral disease that is lethal we have made mistakes in the process

00:37:10.180 and as premier i must take responsibility for that but let me tell you from the bottom

00:37:16.340 of my heart that our government has always strived to find the right balance

00:37:25.940 Our goal, our goal from the beginning has been to protect the health care system from

00:37:34.600 being overwhelmed while minimizing the damaging effects of restrictions.

00:37:39.560 Unfortunately, the debate over COVID has been polarizing, probably more so in Alberta than

00:37:45.000 anywhere in Canada.

00:37:46.820 From day one, the Alberta NDP was the only opposition party in the country to see COVID

00:37:52.300 as an opportunity for partisan division rather than social cohesion we all know that they had

00:37:58.460 had they been in office over the past 20 months alberta would have been in a hard australian

00:38:04.140 style lockdown with constant closure of schools businesses and places of worship

00:38:15.420 the human cost of that would be incalculable on the other end of the spectrum

00:38:20.620 We all know people who wanted us to just let it rip, to take little or no precautions, to substitute slogans for action.

00:38:29.600 But there is no doubt that that approach would have ended in catastrophe with overwhelmed hospitals and thousands more deaths.

00:38:39.160 None of this has been easy for us as conservatives.

00:38:42.660 We place a high value on freedom and on personal responsibility.

00:38:46.300 and I consider it one of our province's great strengths that we have so many Albertans

00:38:50.740 who jealously guard their liberties and distrust government overreach.

00:38:59.400 But I also believe that the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of human life,

00:39:06.000 and the need to protect the vulnerable are also deeply conservative values.

00:39:16.300 conservatives understand that we are not islands into ourselves that we have

00:39:20.520 obligations to one another through society now I'm going to be blunt I know

00:39:25.960 that many of you are angry with me and our government for having introduced

00:39:30.300 public health restrictions at various times throughout COVID I get it I really

00:39:36.060 do I hear you and I do so respectfully it is no secret that these views have

00:39:42.100 strongly expressed in our caucus but please hear me if we had not made tough decisions for example

00:39:49.380 in september there is absolutely no doubt that we would have exceeded the total possible capacity

00:39:56.660 of our hospitals to provide critical care i was days away from having to authorize critical care

00:40:05.940 triage protocols. Bluntly, that means pulling life support from some people and denying life-saving

00:40:13.360 care to others. The very thought of that filled me with dread. As I said at the time, I don't care

00:40:23.080 what the political consequences are. I cannot and will not let that happen. We cannot and will not

00:40:30.000 let that happen.

00:40:35.940 Thankfully, Albertans have once again risen to the challenge and together have brought

00:41:01.960 this wave under control. But the people who deserve our greatest gratitude are our frontline

00:41:07.600 health care workers. I see some of them in this room, and many of them have done their jobs under

00:41:12.440 unthinkable pressure over much of the past 20 months. They have been truly Alberta strong.

00:41:19.180 So please stand and join with me in saluting Alberta's fantastic

00:41:23.960 frontline health care workers for all that they do.

00:41:31.960 Friends, none of us imagined 20 months ago that COVID would still be affecting our lives

00:41:48.920 so profoundly today.

00:41:50.160 While we cannot say for certain what the future holds, we must do everything possible to manage

00:41:55.660 risk while getting on with life.

00:41:58.260 And we are developing a strategy to do just that.

00:42:00.640 This 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.

00:42:24.360 fellow albertans together we are overcoming this time of trial and emerging from it stronger than

00:42:35.800 ever as soon as our government took office in the spring of 2019 we began laying the building blocks

00:42:42.200 of our economic recovery through the elimination of the ndp's job killing carbon tax bill number one

00:42:48.280 through the job creation tax cut which has given alberta one of the most attractive

00:42:52.760 tax rates for new investment in any place in north america through the red yes please

00:43:01.720 through the red tape production action plan through which we've already eliminated get

00:43:06.040 this we don't celebrate it enough we've already eliminated 20 of the regulatory burden on alberta's

00:43:12.120 economy cutting 120 000 rules we've gone from an f to an a on the cfib's canadian red tape report card

00:43:22.760 I see some small business people standing up to applaud that one.

00:43:29.800 We rebalanced Alberta's labour legislation.

00:43:32.880 We repealed the Bill 6 NDP attack on our farmers by passing the Farm Freedom and Safety Act.

00:43:45.740 We're implementing our Fairness for Newcomers action plan to help new Canadians get to work 0.98

00:43:51.760 at their skill level to achieve their dreams and contribute fully to our prosperity.

00:44:00.660 We created the Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, which is helping First Nations

00:44:06.380 become not just participants, but owners of major resource projects

00:44:11.520 to move their people from poverty to prosperity, which is the great moral cause of our time.

00:44:21.760 We brought in an energy-only market.

00:44:25.600 We did away with all the NDP power subsidies and their carbon tax and their micro-regulation.

00:44:31.700 We brought in a real market approach, just about the only one in North America,

00:44:35.500 which has resulted in $5 billion in power production investments

00:44:39.800 and the fastest-growing renewable sector in Canada.

00:44:45.680 We brought in the skills for job strategy.

00:44:50.180 And all of this stuff was in our platform.

00:44:51.760 that you informed as grassroots members.

00:44:54.700 We brought in the skills for jobs strategy,

00:44:56.740 which is increasing support for skilled trades

00:44:59.440 and practical learning to better prepare young Albertans

00:45:02.440 for the jobs of the future.

00:45:03.900 Because you know, as I always say,

00:45:05.960 we conservatives believe that a trade certificate

00:45:09.720 has every bit as much value, merit, and worth

00:45:13.420 as a university degree.

00:45:14.880 We took these and other actions to build the foundation of economic recovery before we

00:45:26.660 were hit by COVID.

00:45:28.320 And then in response to the COVID economic collapse, we stepped up with our ambition

00:45:36.220 through Alberta's economic recovery plan, a bold plan to build, to diversify, and to

00:45:41.720 create jobs while building on our economy's traditional strengths this has meant record

00:45:46.920 investments in building the architecture of our future economy schools hospital roads rural

00:45:53.240 internet and so much more it's the plan included the innovation employment grant uh to ignite

00:46:00.040 both in the high tech sector and innovation economy we brought in an expanded petrochemical

00:46:05.320 incentive program to create thousands of new high paying jobs in a great industry that can both

00:46:10.680 green our economy while ensuring a future for our natural gas industry we brought in the natural gas

00:46:15.960 vision and hydrogen roadmap and exp and i'll say more about that we brought in an expanded film and

00:46:21.960 television tax credit we brought in the jobs now program the largest ever jobs training program in

00:46:27.720 alberta history to connect the unemployed and underemployed to the growing number of available

00:46:32.520 jobs we brought go ahead that's important

00:46:39.720 we created the invest alberta corporation uh to aggressively go out there and and sell the

00:46:46.280 alberta advantage this province emerging as the freest and fastest moving economy in north america

00:46:53.560 we brought in historic investments in irrigation infrastructure the first in over 60 years to

00:46:59.480 support our farmers increase their yields and uh and better conserve water we are

00:47:06.040 historic investments to expand rural broadband because we want to ensure that people who live

00:47:11.640 in rural and remote areas are able fully to participate in the future digital economy

00:47:17.000 in their communities essential for the future of rural alberta

00:47:22.920 and so much more and look at the results because friends the results speak for themselves

00:47:28.920 Alberta now is leading Canada in economic growth by a country mile, and we are set to do so again next year.

00:47:36.600 we have the second fastest job creation record in canada this year 65 000 new jobs created just in

00:47:59.960 the last three months 90 000 since the beginning of this year unemployment down by nearly half a

00:48:04.920 percentage point last month. We replaced all the jobs lost since the beginning of COVID. And get

00:48:11.160 this, we are within a month or two of fully recovering where our economy was at before

00:48:17.400 the disaster of the Notley-Trudeau alliance in 2015. Let me tell you one of my favorite stats

00:48:30.620 that says everything you need to know about Alberta, and it's this. Last year, in the midst

00:48:36.160 of what I call a double recession, the COVID recession and the energy price collapse, you

00:48:42.160 would think that Albertans would be filled with despair. But instead, what is our greatest asset?

00:48:48.220 It's the entrepreneurial culture of our people. And we saw that last year. I see Brett Wilson

00:48:53.280 clapping. We saw that, a great Alberta entrepreneur, we saw that last year with the highest

00:49:00.120 number of business and corporations in the history of our province, where else

00:49:04.220 in the planet would people, when faced with a double whammy recession,

00:49:08.140 would go out and start a new business? I'll tell you where. In Alberta.

00:49:12.220 The home of free enterprise.

00:49:18.040 It's amazing.

00:49:22.540 What a province. What a people.

00:49:24.500 and here's another one that i love you know all the the the clever people the laurentian elites

00:49:35.520 the ndp their their friends in the trudeau liberal government you know all of them have

00:49:41.820 been telling us lecturing us albertans that oil and gas is over it's a legacy industry why don't

00:49:47.960 you stubborn albertans move on already read you know wake up and smell the coffee you know they

00:49:53.320 were telling us that for years and years and years and now what do we see the most remarkable

00:49:59.320 dynamic and i believe durable recovery of this country's largest industry uh with strong and

00:50:07.300 abiding commodity prices folks what what is this telling us as there is an emerging global shortage

00:50:13.000 of energy around the world that alberta is there to provide that energy and we will not relinquish

00:50:21.460 global energy markets, to the world's

00:50:23.440 worst regimes, to the Saudis, the Venezuelans 1.00

00:50:25.720 and the Russians. We will be there

00:50:27.540 as that ethical supplier of energy

00:50:29.480 for years and years and years to

00:50:31.460 come.

00:50:44.760 And I hope

00:50:45.560 Rachel's not watching because I'm just about to

00:50:47.380 spoil her day with this

00:50:48.600 with this stat

00:50:50.340 Last month, we produced, shipped, and sold more Alberta oil than at any time in our history.

00:51:06.300 We've seen the completion of Line 3 replacement, and TMX is on track.

00:51:12.140 And let me pause there as well to send a message to our friends in the United States.

00:51:16.960 You 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.

00:51:34.080 He 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.

00:51:47.840 He's pleading with developed countries to open their strategic petroleum reserves.

00:51:53.800 He's lifted sanctions on Russia, building their gas pipeline to Western Europe to dominate strategically Western European energy interests.

00:52:03.040 He's lifting sanctions on American investment in offshore Venezuelan heavy oil development.

00:52:10.740 President Biden, we Albertans have a message for you.

00:52:13.760 If you don't have enough oil, we Albertans are happy to help out.

00:52:18.160 Approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

00:52:26.800 It's not complicated.

00:52:28.320 it. And by the way, by the way, did you know the Keystone XL pipeline, it was going to deliver

00:52:37.720 840,000 barrels a day of energy produced at the world's highest environmental human rights and

00:52:43.440 labor standards. But today, the United States is importing 840,000 barrels of dirty conflict oil

00:52:50.160 from Putin's Russia. It doesn't make any sense, but we should, we won't relent. We will continue

00:52:56.340 to fight for common sense in global energy markets friends our farmers had a tough year

00:53:04.820 but with weather but still but still we are seeing the strongest investment ever in at the agri-food

00:53:12.100 sector with new food processing plants and we are working on a billion dollars of additional

00:53:17.460 investment that will ensure a vital future for that historic industry and how about after a

00:53:23.460 tough year how about a big round of applause to all of the farmers and ranchers who feed us every

00:53:28.980 single day we thank you guys and we love you the forestry industry in alberta is having its best

00:53:50.580 year ever and major investments are on the way we have the fastest growing high-tech sector in

00:53:56.980 north america just in the past few months billions of dollars of amount announcements for new high

00:54:03.860 tech ventures here in alberta from major global companies including two weeks ago by far the

00:54:11.780 largest investment in high tech or digital in the history of our province a 4.3 billion dollar

00:54:18.980 investment from amazon web services that will create five billion dollars of economic activity

00:54:24.340 create a minimum of a thousand jobs and puts alberta on the global mac as a map as a global

00:54:30.660 tech leader we're having the best year ever in in venture capital investment that's the jet fuel

00:54:42.180 of the startup economy of the innovation uh businesses we are having the best year ever

00:54:48.020 by far in Alberta's film and television industry thanks in part to our expansion of the film and

00:54:53.540 television tax credit. We've gone from about 150 million dollars a year in investment there

00:54:58.680 to a billion dollars a year right now. We have eight major productions including the largest

00:55:04.180 production ever filmed in Canada, HBO's The Last of Us. We are seeing an entire new industry take

00:55:13.340 route driving for diversification filling up hospitals excuse me filling up well maybe the

00:55:19.100 last of us it is a zombie movie filling up hotels it's a zombie movie and so by the way if you see

00:55:27.240 if you see zombies wandering around in your community don't worry uh it they're just actors

00:55:32.920 it's not the ndp caucus it's a joke it's a joke i'll probably get into trouble on that

00:55:41.760 And 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.

00:56:02.660 And I can assure you, many more are coming.

00:56:06.020 Minister Nalli, Minister Savage and I are working on those.

00:56:09.560 And last week, we announced the $2.5 billion investment by Northern Petrochemicals in Greenview County

00:56:16.480 that will create 4,000 upfront jobs, 400 high-paying ongoing jobs, another net zero project.

00:56:23.980 All of these projects helping us to improve our environmental performance,

00:56:28.140 which helps us to get access to capital for our energy sector.

00:56:32.660 while ensuring a future demand for natural gas,

00:56:36.060 which means more drilling and work for service companies,

00:56:39.360 and creating products that are in demand

00:56:41.420 that we get to ship all around the world.

00:56:43.360 It is a win, win, win, a win for the environment,

00:56:46.460 a win for jobs, a win for diversification,

00:56:48.880 and a win for oil and gas.

00:56:50.460 And that's before I even get to the Alberta future

00:56:54.160 around the hydrogen economy, a $2.5 trillion economy.

00:56:58.280 And folks, we've already had five significant investments.

00:57:02.420 There 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.

00:57:18.440 It's exciting.

00:57:21.520 Housing starts are up.

00:57:23.300 People are moving to Alberta once again to benefit from our renewal of the Alberta Advantage.

00:57:29.500 Last week alone, as Miranda Rosen said on stage,

00:57:32.680 was a $7 billion week in terms of announcements for this province.

00:57:37.520 No wonder the NDP looks so upset on the other side of the legislature.

00:57:41.720 For them, good news is bad news.

00:57:44.280 But for Albertans, this tells them that hope really is here for our future.

00:57:49.380 Many more major investments are close to landing.

00:57:52.540 And none of this is happening by accident.

00:57:55.020 Friends, there's one simple message in all of this.

00:57:57.560 Alberta is back. Alberta is rising. Alberta is on a roll.

00:58:04.080 Now, friends, let me say that all of this has been thanks to, in part, your hard work

00:58:30.400 to electing this government and forming its policy agenda and through all of this that

00:58:35.200 i've just talked about we have continued to work around the clock to keep our commitments

00:58:40.640 to albertans in the most ambitious and detailed platform ever presented to voters in an election

00:58:46.960 in two and a half years we have completed uh or made major progress on 304 of 372 platform

00:58:55.520 commitments that's 82 percent already completed with another year and a half to go

00:59:03.120 and i want to thank i want to thank our caucus your caucus your mlas for making this happen

00:59:11.040 we have passed over a hundred bills through alberta's legislature to make this possible

00:59:16.800 that is more legislative work than any legislature or the parliament of canada throughout the

00:59:22.320 COVID crisis. We have worked harder and done more to keep these commitments. These policies were

00:59:28.040 inspired by you, the grassroots members of this party, and I can't wait to see the ideas that

00:59:33.140 emerge from this room throughout the course of this weekend. And let me give you an example of

00:59:38.360 some of the areas where we have kept those commitments. Fiscal responsibility. It's easy

00:59:43.540 to forget in all of the tumult of the past two years how we inherited a fiscal crisis from the

00:59:48.580 spendthrift NDP, but through carefully controlled spending, led by our brilliant

00:59:54.240 finance minister, Travis Tays. Sure, give Travis a hand.

01:00:02.540 And hard work by all ministers and caucus. We have made difficult choices. And you know,

01:00:07.980 some of them, yes, some of them are controversial and drew criticism. But we always knew that would

01:00:13.700 be the case. We know that governing isn't easy unless you avoid the hard decisions.

01:00:17.860 We were elected to take some hard decisions, so we have carefully controlled spending,

01:00:23.160 and I believe that Travis will be presenting to Albertans a radically improved fiscal situation in his February budget.

01:00:29.680 We restored parental rights in the education system, and we brought in the Choice in Education Act.

01:00:35.640 the choice in education act that says for the first time in alberta law that we recognize as

01:00:50.200 a fundamental human right that parents have the first say in how best to educate their children

01:00:55.920 we have created new charter schools getting back to alberta's tradition of innovation and

01:01:04.960 competition to drive better results for students to prepare them well for their future. And I think

01:01:12.580 most importantly, I stood before you in May of 2018 to say that we would stop the NDP's ideological

01:01:22.480 left-wing politicized rewrite of the school curriculum. We kept our word. We stopped it.

01:01:29.780 And 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.

01:01:50.060 Thank you, Minister LaGrange, for all that you are doing.

01:01:59.780 On democratic reforms, we kept our word and have passed into law a Citizens Initiative Act that

01:02:12.700 allows Albertans to go straight to a referendum vote on issues if the legislature is not listening.

01:02:19.620 We passed the recall law, which will be brought into force in the next few weeks. We kept our

01:02:26.360 commitment to renew our tradition of senate democracy and with our elections last month

01:02:32.600 and how about a big congratulatory round of applause for the three top vote getters who

01:02:38.420 i believe are all with us here today to pam davidson erica barudis and michael martiniuk

01:02:43.700 thank you and congratulations

01:02:45.260 we've kept our commitments to make life better for help even at a time of fiscal scarcity

01:02:56.540 we've invested uh three billion dollars more in the health care system to cope with covid another

01:03:02.040 nearly billion in baseline support for our surgical initiative which i believe we will

01:03:07.060 still achieve the goal of by the next election to get our surgical wait times down to clinically

01:03:12.100 acceptable standards after having inherited a disaster from the ndp we've invested an additional

01:03:17.540 80 million dollars for the recruitment and retention of rural doctors and yes we have a

01:03:21.700 lot more work to do to ensure uh high quality reliable health care in rural areas it's a it's a

01:03:28.260 always a challenge but we are focused on resolving it we have taken real measures to crack down on

01:03:34.340 rural crime and our rural crime strategy has had real results and we've begun to see a significant

01:03:39.860 decline in rural property crimes. How about our action on mental health and addictions? One of

01:03:46.660 the really great social crises of our province that we've been living through in recent years

01:03:52.260 and made only worse by the COVID situation. Thanks to the leadership of first Jason Luan and now Mike

01:03:58.580 Ellis. We are creating 4,000 additional treatment spaces. We are building four new

01:04:10.080 long-term residential treatment facilities. We have eliminated government fees to access

01:04:17.440 government-funded addictions treatment centers. Our approach is not the NDP approach, which is

01:04:24.580 to facilitate addiction, what the NDP now wants to do is adopt so-called safe supply policies

01:04:31.680 where the government delivers dangerous drugs to people who are coping with addiction.

01:04:37.680 Instead, we are presenting the option of hope of lifetime recovery from the trap of addictions.

01:04:44.080 That's compassionate conservatism.

01:04:54.580 that is compassionate conservatism we have been rolling out our human trafficking action plan in

01:05:03.420 part with the advice of of paul brant's task advisory committee on cracking down on human

01:05:08.900 trafficking we've taken other measures uh to like claire's law to better protect vulnerable women

01:05:15.160 and children from exploitation

01:05:17.020 and we have kept our commitment to fight for a fair deal for alberta we sued justin trudeau

01:05:26.460 over his federal carbon tax we are suing his government's outrageous violation of our exclusive

01:05:32.940 authority under the constitution to regulate the resources that belong to albertans and i believe

01:05:38.540 we are going to win at the alberta court of appeal in our constitutional challenge

01:05:42.220 of the no more pipelines law bill c69

01:05:51.580 we've appointed in that we've created an alberta parole board we've appointed an

01:05:54.860 alberta chief firearms officer to have a common sense alberta perspective

01:05:58.940 on the application of firearms federal firearms legislation

01:06:03.100 and yes we held in october we kept our commitment

01:06:06.940 to let Albertans pass their judgment on our fair deal in the Federation to vote yes on a fair deal

01:06:15.740 by voting on equalization. That vote was ratified by the legislature and we now

01:06:21.100 formally begin the process of demanding negotiations for a fair deal so that we

01:06:26.620 can develop the resources that pay so many of the bills in the Canadian Federation.

01:06:36.940 and we will not relent finally we continue to do the important work of examining the possibility

01:06:50.580 of exercising even more powers like through the creation of an alberta provincial police force

01:06:57.080 which i believe would give us amazing advantage of local community policing and i encourage all

01:07:03.960 of you to look at the model that Minister Madhu has presented, which would have greater integration

01:07:08.200 of social services, of alternative drug treatment courts, of child wellness services, of Indigenous

01:07:15.780 oversight as well, into police governance. How about, just imagine this, a day when a kid who

01:07:23.100 grows up in Wataskawin, who wants to serve her community as a police officer, can go to an 0.89

01:07:30.420 Alberta Police Academy, come back home and serve the community that she knows so well for the

01:07:37.360 balance of her life, of her career, rather than the revolving door that we currently have? How

01:07:42.820 about community policing to keep our communities safe? I think it's an idea worth exploring.

01:07:52.380 And Minister Tays continues to do important work on the very significant potential benefits

01:07:59.460 to Alberta's economy of a provincial pension plan.

01:08:03.960 So friends, altogether, what I'm saying is promises made and promises kept.

01:08:09.980 We still have more work to do, and that is where we must focus on the next 18 months.

01:08:15.440 Now, as I close, let me say, we all know that there will be a leadership review vote next spring,

01:08:20.760 and I want you to know, I welcome that.

01:08:22.760 I embrace that opportunity for accountability.

01:08:25.260 I have tried imperfectly from the beginning of the Unite Alberta movement to offer my own background in a spirit of servant leadership.

01:08:37.320 And ultimately, the members of this party will decide what they want to do.

01:08:41.840 Whether or not you want leadership renewal will be your decision next spring.

01:08:45.820 I 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.

01:08:59.760 We have some internal differences. Every Big Ten political party does and always will.

01:09:05.480 But 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.

01:09:29.760 i believe i believe that at the next election we continue with the momentum that we have in

01:09:46.480 this province albertans will look at the strongest economic record uh in the federation the strongest

01:09:54.160 economic growth in alberta in in over a decade they will look at uh job incredible job creation

01:10:02.960 and new investment they will see a government that has kept its commitments to make life better for

01:10:08.320 albertans to fight for a fair deal uh to focus on jobs the economy and pipelines and if we can stick

01:10:15.760 to the things that we were sent to edmonton to do i believe we will be favorably judged by albertans

01:10:21.920 but let us focus on the people's business and let us all be united and resolved in our belief

01:10:29.520 in the future of this province so many of alberta's critics have been kicking us while we

01:10:35.360 were down so so many of those who have benefited from our prosperity and generosity have criticized

01:10:42.000 this province at every turn but i say to those critics alberta is back alberta is on the rise

01:10:49.280 Alberta is honourable and with your continued support I believe that we will move forward in

01:10:55.200 the renewal of this province as a great land of hope, opportunity and prosperity for decades to

01:11:01.520 come. God bless you and God bless Alberta. Thank you very much.

01:11:19.280 .

01:11:49.280 I just wanted to let you know, you've probably noticed that the doors at the back have been

01:12:09.260 closed. We were worried about too much of a log jam if everyone tried to go out those doors at

01:12:14.120 the same time. So we would ask you to exit either stage right or stage left. And as I said before,

01:12:22.160 please be patient in getting your food. Oh, there's already folks going out. Everyone's

01:12:27.700 hungry. And please enjoy. And we'll see you back afterwards. Thank you.

01:12:44.120 Thank you.

Western Standard - November 21, 2021

Jason Kenney's Keynote Address live from the UCP AGM 2021

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