In this episode, Environment and Special Places Minister Rebecca Schultz talks about her recent trip to Japan and her work with the Indian Resource Council and First Nations to make the case for Canadian natural gas there. She also talks about the importance of First Nations LNG projects and the work First Nations are doing to support them.
00:03:28.920which means we will have that natural gas
00:03:32.280and that we are pushing for pipelines.
00:03:34.740I do think, you know, there was a lot of conversation
00:03:36.860about tariffs and the impact that that has had.
00:03:39.080And, you know, I think a positive there is it's maybe shifted some of the narrative from provinces across the country that maybe had been opposed to energy provinces or projects now saying, you know what, we actually need this for the overall Canadian economy.
00:03:54.320But now we actually have to turn that into action.
00:03:56.640We need to see those pipeline projects completed, which will allow us to then take our natural gas to other areas of the world.
00:04:04.820And so, you know, a lot of our conversation was about our environmental record, the work that our industry has done on methane.
00:04:11.080We had a number of industry folks join us on that mission as well, as well as Indigenous representation.
00:04:19.440So Stephen Buffalo from the Indian Resource Council honestly just did such a fantastic job about talking about the importance of these projects, obviously, for First Nations communities and economic reconciliation.
00:04:30.820We had Charlene Gale with the First Nations Projects Coalition so that she could really share the message about the work that they're doing to bring information, unbiased information, to First Nations communities so that they are able to make decisions at the speed of business to keep these projects moving forward quickly.
00:04:47.820And of course, with Stephen's role in the AIOC, the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, you know, there was a huge amount of discussion there.
00:04:57.720And Karen Ogun, again, with First Nations LNG Alliance, just bringing a message that First Nations communities across, especially B.C. and Alberta, but right across Canada, are seeing the benefits of these projects for their communities.
00:05:14.120And then, you know, making the case for our environmental record and why we want to be one of their top trading partners.
00:05:23.820Excellent. So you had mentioned tariffs.
00:05:27.720And also the attitude of other governments, specifically British Columbia.
00:05:34.260Just recently in the last, we had Mr. Abbey on CBC with the premiers in Washington here yesterday.
00:05:42.100And there seemed to, I don't know, am I wrong, that there seems to be kind of more of a willingness.
00:05:47.460Yeah, you know, and again, I haven't spoken to the premier myself,
00:05:50.860but reading some of the comments and media stories about that it looks like British Columbia is
00:05:57.500shifting. That was one of the jurisdictions that was raised to us by folks from Japan while we
00:06:04.100were over there saying, you know, what are you doing to work with British Columbia to encourage
00:06:08.880them to support pipeline projects? And so, you know, I do think, you know, I'm an optimist. So
00:06:14.000if there's a benefit from these tariff conversations and the overall broader conversation about the
00:06:19.900Canadian economy and the importance of energy. And our premier is doing such a great job
00:06:23.980of articulating that both in Canada and the United States. I think that, you know, this is a really
00:06:31.540important time for us to be having that conversation, but then we need to actually
00:06:34.960put that into action. So, you know, with things like Bill C-69, obviously that slows down any
00:06:42.640major projects that are going to be built in this country, obviously called the No More Pipelines
00:06:46.740Act. We can't have regulations like that and then say, oh, but we're going to be pro-energy and we
00:06:53.380need to export more of our natural gas. Same thing right now from the federal government. I mean,
00:06:58.500you know, they're saying now, oh sure, you know, we need to support the energy industry,
00:07:02.580but they have not taken the emissions cap off the table. They have not taken the clean
00:07:07.540electricity regulations off the table. So they still have all of these very problematic pieces
00:07:13.140of policy regulation legislation on the table creating uncertainty for investment in oil and
00:07:19.940gas which then again to to people outside of canada and this is what we heard in japan is
00:07:25.700that it does not tell the story that we are a stable reliable trading partner um and so i think
00:07:32.100that that's an area where i mean you know i i hope that we also see an election i i've been pretty
00:07:36.980vocal about that. We do need a pro-energy, pro-economy focused federal government. We really
00:07:45.540do. And so I think that that's going to happen and I think that that will help. But that's what we
00:07:50.420need when it comes to our image outside of Canada to ensure those jobs, strong economy inside of
00:07:57.220Canada. And again, that is what's going to have an impact on global emissions and Japan's
00:08:04.980environmental goals. Sure. And I was going to ask you about that as well, because on March 9th,
00:08:10.500we are going to have a change of government regardless, right? Whether there's an election
00:08:15.080or not. So what would you expect from, I guess, a liberal government or alternatively a conservative
00:08:24.240government under Pierre Polyev? You know, I mean, I obviously do have concerns with this current
00:08:30.940federal liberal government. And I don't think that any of the candidates who are running for
00:08:35.660the future liberal leadership have really committed to changing course. You know, they say that our
00:08:42.620economy matters and that we should look at marketing our energy like we haven't in the past.
00:08:48.380But again, you know, we have Mark Carney, who, you know, very much has supported that pro-carbon
00:08:55.660tax pro-activist agenda, you know, wanted to increase the carbon tax, quite frankly.
00:09:02.780And so we're not seeing anything from them that will essentially move our country in
00:09:07.980a different direction. So I firmly believe we need a federal conservative government.
00:09:12.700You know, obviously we need to get rid of these barriers. Bill C-69, we need to move quickly
00:09:17.500on market access and building pipelines across our country. I would say multiple
00:09:22.860directions that our premier has been a champion for that. But then of course, you know, we do,
00:09:27.600we need to get rid of the emissions. We need to take that off the table. We can't have policies
00:09:33.460that are going to curtail production and essentially then curtail our ability to meet
00:09:38.820the demands of our major trading partners. What about the carbon tax specifically? All they have
00:09:46.420has um you know campaigned on max the tax but there's still some uncertainty whether or not
00:09:53.060that applies to the industrial portion of the tax and i know that we have the tier program and we've
00:09:57.940been putting it into r d essentially um but it almost seems to be kind of a compromise solution
00:10:03.780in a way it's you know either if we didn't have that then those dollars would flow out of alberta
00:10:11.380what would be an ideal solution as far as a carbon tax goes okay so it sounds like everybody's going
00:10:16.020to get rid of the consumer tax but what about what about the industrial portion which is you know
00:10:20.660much larger that's a great question and i think our hope would be that that responsibility would
00:10:26.660be transitioned back to provinces to make those decisions before this federal liberal government
00:10:32.740alberta did have the tier system in place or previous iterations of that system there are
00:10:40.260though changes that i think uh could be made to that system i mean we want to remain competitive
00:10:46.580industry has been bringing forward a number of different ideas on things that we could change
00:10:51.220within that tier structure because of course it's up for review in 2026 so this is a great time to
00:10:56.900start gathering their feedback and looking at what that system could look like but again that would
00:11:02.180depend on a federal government you know essentially saying we're going to vacate that space and we're
00:11:06.740we're going to give that back to provinces to make those decisions. But competitiveness has to
00:11:12.020be part of that, right? Not putting unrealistic carbon taxes on our industry that drive investment
00:11:18.500out and hamper their ability to invest here. But, you know, I think that, you know, certainly what
00:11:25.560I heard in Japan and what I heard from industry was it was great to have industry telling their
00:11:29.960own story about the great work that they've done. Because that that is something that whether it is
00:11:36.600uh japan or the eu uh that environmental record and the work done on emissions reduction and
00:11:42.360methane and things like that the great work our industry has done even before governments came in
00:11:47.240uh to set that up especially in our natural gas industry companies have been doing such a great
00:11:51.080job of this uh for years before before the alberta government ever asked them to sure uh and so you
00:11:57.640know that means a lot to our trading partners and uh you know i think it's important for them
00:12:02.120um but i do think that there are things that we could definitely change moving forward to make
00:12:06.120make sure that we're maximizing competitiveness. And of course, we always want to do the right
00:12:09.780thing for the environment to make sure that we can continue to produce energy for generations
00:12:13.360to come. Sure. Who's in favor of pollution? Well, that's exactly it. We want to make sure that,
00:12:18.940you know, we maintain our high air quality, our high water quality, that we are using as little
00:12:25.120footprint as we can. An industry, obviously, with technology and innovation has done that.
00:12:31.040And now our companies here, technology innovation that has been generated here in Alberta, we're now seeing them operating all over the world to help them meet their environmental goals, which is also...
00:12:43.560I was just going to make the point because I've been covering this for a long time.
00:12:47.220You know, U.S. emissions have been going down for quite a lot of years and it's basically all market drip and it's substituting natural gas for coal.
00:12:55.380You know, it was nothing that Obama did.
00:12:56.860It was nothing that Biden did or anybody else.
00:12:59.500It was just actual market driven and the company's, like you said, taking advantage of it.
00:13:06.140Um, it seems to me that there's a lot of intersection in, in the, in the government