In this episode, I sit down with the Prime Minister of Alberta, Alison Redford, to discuss the deal between Alberta and the federal government on the Trans Mountain pipeline project and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. We discuss the benefits of the deal, the challenges, and what it could mean for the rest of the energy sector.
00:00:00.000Okay, and do you think if Ottawa had approved a pipeline years ago, the independence movement would be where it's at now in terms of momentum?
00:00:07.660Well, as I said, it's vitally important that this deal was signed because I think there's a number of decisions the federal government made that ended up eroding confidence.
00:00:18.440And it's not just about getting a pipeline built. It was that they took away aspirationally of us ever getting another pipeline to be built ever again.
00:00:30.000because we do have trans mountain pipeline we do have coastal gas link which is expanding
00:00:34.160in natural gas but essentially staring into a future where not only we would never be able to
00:00:40.000build another pipeline but we'd have to start shutting in our existing production which is what
00:00:45.360several independent consultant reports said by 2 million barrels a day by 2035 and all of the
00:00:50.960impact that would have on our finances on our taxes on our ability to pay for services that
00:00:56.160it was that combination of packages. Same thing with the net zero power rigs. That may in fact
00:01:01.840be the biggest thing that came out of our early MOU. And the announcement you saw the Prime
00:01:07.420Minister make earlier in the week that natural gas, yes, has to be part of our electricity grid
00:01:12.240in order to be able to provide stability. 90% of our daily use of power typically comes from
00:01:18.740natural gas. And we've already paid billions of dollars to switch from coal. We know that solar,
00:01:25.160wind and batteries are not able to continue fueling our continued growth so that to me
00:01:31.040getting having that limitation was also causing some of the frustration frankly I've also mentioned
00:01:37.420to the prime minister people are frustrated at immigration policy that took place under his
00:01:42.120predecessor I'm glad to see that he's making some changes there and a lot of the separatist movement
00:01:47.160is being fueled by those who are law-abiding gun owners who are going to be made criminals by the
00:01:52.260existing federal firearms bans on guns that come into effect in October. So I think that this will
00:01:58.700help a lot towards a group of folks who were disaffected because of economic issues. I think
00:02:04.880some of the changes on immigration that we're going to be proposing in the fall will also help
00:02:09.500address some of the concerns, but I still think there's some other outstanding issues,
00:02:13.340and in particular the gun issue I think is a big one.