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good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us I'm pleased to be here with Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis and
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Minister of Justice Mickey Amory We're announcing that government will introduce amendments to the Critical
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Infrastructure Defense Act to protect essential infrastructure which in turn protects Alberta's economy and its
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people Some amendments are focused on the southern border Earlier this year we created a 2 kilometer deep zone in
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Alberta of the Canada US border and deployed the interdiction patrol team to
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secure it Now we're moving that that zone into the critical infrastructure defense act So the definition of
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essential infrastructure is listed in one place alone This would be just a bit of legislative housekeeping but the
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amendments don't stop there They also designate oil and gas production sites and facilities where emissions data and
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records are held as essential infrastructure This amendment to the critical infrastructure defense act
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provides an extra tool to safeguard essential infrastructure from interference and that includes
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interference from Ottawa I would certainly hope that the new prime minister has taken the time to read our
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constitution and I would direct him to pay specific attention to section 92A which gives the province not the federal
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government the exclusive jurisdiction over non-renewable natural resource development Alberta will continue in its
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pursuit of doubling our oil and gas production to meet the growing global demand for energy And we will not let
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Ottawa stand in our way We will not tolerate the continuous unconstitutional overreaches made by the federal liberal
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government Measures like the emissions cap the net zero electricity rags the net zero electric vehicle mandate and
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the energy industry advertising ban must be stopped now And make no mistake
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Alberta will do whatever it takes to shield our economy from the Liberals growth killing lunacy These amendments
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we're introducing today would include denying federal workers access to our facilities and the information they
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contain I will continue to fiercely and unapologetically stand up for Albertans
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and defend the best interest of our province our economy and our industry This ongoing tariff dispute has proven
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now more than ever that Canada must build big and build fast to reach new
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global markets for export Canadians and politicians from across the country are calling for new pipelines to be built
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east west and north to secure our future and end our reliance upon our southern trading partner However if the new prime
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minister wants to resume an old fight well we will We'll fight tooth and nail because if we can't make these decisions
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and build then it's so obvious when it's so obviously in the national interest then what kind of an economic future
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does Canada have today's amendments are a warning but they are also an invitation to Ottawa Let's talk Let's
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rise to the occasion Let's use Canada's riches to protect our nation And with that I'd like to ask Minister Vicky
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Amory to share more details about the amendments
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Well thank you Premier and good afternoon everyone I am pleased to be here today to share more about our
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amendments to the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act and how our amendments will continue to protect our
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province and our southern border and stand up against overreaches by the Liberal Federal Government Alberta's
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Critical Infrastructure Defense Act was first introduced to protect essential infrastructure from trespassers
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interference and damage of any kind especially those that could cause significant risk to the public safety of
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Albertans This act protects essential infrastructure by creating offenses under the act of trespassing interfering
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with operations or causing damage to property Public safety is a top priority
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for our government and that's no surprise It's why in December our government announced a plan to secure
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the Alberta US border to crack down on illegal activity and keep illicit drugs out of our province One of these
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commitments to secure the border was to create a 2 km buffer zone to be designated as an essential
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infrastructure Since then we've taken Swiss swift action to amend the critical
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infrastructure defense regulation to designate this border zone as critical infrastructure with plans to amend the
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critical infrastructure defense act this spring And that's why in the house this afternoon I will introduce bill 45 the
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critical infrastructure defense amendment act 2025 If passed this bill
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would provide crucial amendments to the critical infrastructure defense act and as I mentioned further enhance security
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at the Alberta US border and protect our province's economy and citizens from the harmful jobkilling federal emissions cap
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Speaking of the federal emissions cap Alberta's government is proposing amendments to the critical
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infrastructure defense act that would update the definition of essential infrastructure to add facilities where
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oil and gas production and emissions data and records are held and to explicitly state that the act applies to
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the federal government These amendments are in line with the Alberta sovereignty within a United Canada motion which was
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passed in December of 2024 that introduced measures to stop a federal emissions cap from damaging the
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province's economy industry and its prosperity As I mentioned before as part
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of our continued efforts to strengthen security at the international border amendments would move the border zone
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portion of the definition of essential infrastructure into the act itself
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With the act being amended it makes sense to update it to ensure the definition of essential infrastructure
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is fully captured in a single place Currently the 2 km border 2 km deep
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border zone north of the entire Alberta United States border is included in the
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critical infrastructure defense regulation The inclusion of that 2 km border zone to the definition of
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essential infrastructure provides peace officers with additional tools to protect the area from trespassing
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interference or damage when people have no lawful right justification or excuse
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to be in that area I want to be absolutely clear Individuals who are legally working living or traveling in
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that 2 km zone may continue to do so unimpeded Today's legislation brings or today's
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legislation being introduced outlines significant progress to prot protect
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essential infrastructure and the critical border zone And these amendments also ensure our province has
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the ability to produce responsible energy and meet the world's growing
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demands Public safety and Alberta's economic prosperity are two of our government's highest priorities Whether
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we are strengthening border security or calling on the federal government to scrap its emissions cap our government
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will continue to protect public safety and defend Alberta's interests when the federal government introduces policies
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that negatively impact our province Thank you very much And now I'll turn it
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over to Minister Ellis
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Well thank you Minister and thank you uh Premier I'll try and be brief here Uh Elbur's government of course has taken
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this very swift action to strengthen security along the southern border at the end of last year Of course we've uh
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deployed considerable resources to get boots on the ground as quickly as possible The new sheriff's interdiction
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patrol team of course is playing a very key role in our ongoing efforts to stop drugs gun smuggling uh human trafficking
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and of course other illegal uh crossber activities Currently we have uh 20 Alberta sheriffs that have been assigned
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to the IP patrol uh to patrol the border between Alberta's six uh southern points
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of entry uh with the uh 31 remaining sheriffs to be fully deployed hopefully in the coming months Uh they are already
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making of course a significant difference on on crime traveling in both directions and I can assure you that our portion of the border is indeed secure
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as they continue to focus on uh known hotspots of illegal activity and keeping a watchful eye over anything suspicious
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And thanks to the government's $29 million investment in budget 2025 uh for the IP we now have more boots on the
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ground to detect and intervene in these crimes And I will say this again I can proudly say that our border is indeed
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secure The pressure that we are now putting on offenders will only intensify in the coming weeks as the IP's presence
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continues to grow And today's announcement by the attorney general will of course immensely add to the border security with the creation of the
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border red zone by amending regulations under the critical infra infrastructure defense act Albertans can take comfort
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in knowing that their safety and security is and always will be non-negotiable under this government
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We're going to continue to do whatever it takes to crack down on illegal activity taking place uh at our shared
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border And with that we will take questions Thank you Thank you We'll go into our media Q&A Just a reminder for
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those on the phone and in the room this press conference under embargo until the legislation is tabled later today Uh
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we'll start off here in the room One question one followup I see your hands Wonderful Then we'll go to the phones We'll start with Michelle Um a question
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for I guess premier or any any one of you on stage Um so Canada is is facing unprecedented threat to its economy
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potentially serve sovereignty from the United States and I wonder if you'd explain why it was a priority to add
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measures to prevent Canadian federal government inspectors uh to conduct emission cap uh inspections or to
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collect data Well it's it's both We have had two emissions that have emerged um
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in uh since December So the uh Alberta sovereignty within a United Canada act we already signaled that we would be
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moving in this direction because the federal government has not taken their threat of an emissions cap off the table
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This is the mechanism to be able to address that problem At the same time we have the issue with the border that
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needs to be addressed and uh in a separate press conference we announced that we were creating this 2 km zone
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Both of them are going to be protected under the critical infrastructure defense act When you're opening a bill you make both changes at the same time
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That's the reason But but why this i mean you know it's the threats are coming from you know the tariffs right
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that is the biggest threat That's what a lot of people are worried about Yet you're focusing some of your energies on the federal government The biggest
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threat Why is that well because the biggest threat to the Alberta economy has been the past 10 years of Liberal government the canceled $176 billion
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worth of investment We um uh continue to face threats whether it's tanker ban off
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the west coast bill C69 which has still not been passed net zero power rigs net zero cars net zero buildings methane
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caps emissions caps Uh if they continue doing that it'll crush our economy So I would say that we face a dual threat Yes
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we have to deal with the the tariffs but we also equally have to deal with a a federal liberal government that has
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tried to crush our economy for the past 10 years and we're just not going to let them do that anymore especially now that
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we're seeing an unprecedented interest in trying to get uh pipelines built uh east west and north And so this is our
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signal to the federal government especially since even with the new prime minister still seems to be very enthusiastic about taking over our tier
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program and emissions caps and carbon pricing and what that would mean We're just letting him know this is uh our
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business Section 92A of the Constitution gives us the right to manage our resources and we're going to assert that
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that includes the emission data that comes from those resources and the installations that we manage Thanks
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Michelle We'll go to Lisa then to She Thanks Um I'm hoping you can just clarify something because when we asked
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during the tech briefing they directed these questions to you which was kind of odd because it seems to me like a very
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technical question Um how does the reporting on emissions data data work
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currently in the private sector does the current emissions reporting process necessarily involve federal officials
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needing to physically go into these private facility or would banning these federal employees not affect emissions
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reporting in any way practically well this is part of the issue is that we don't have a single source of truth for
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emissions data We found that when we were looking at our um our methane emissions uh by our calculation which is
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looking at at source um materials uh they had reduced their emissions 45% uh
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from 2005 levels two years early The federal government hired some outside
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organization to do some aerial scanning and they came up with a different number And so if we're going to have these
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kinds of disputes we know that there needs to be a single source of truth when it comes to actual onsite data And
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we're going to collect that and then we'll u we'll make sure that it is shared But we we believe that uh because
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the federal government has uh come up with different numbers at different times for their own purposes We think
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that we actually need to get real data and because we're the ones on the ground we'll be the ones able to to do that
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work So it doesn't this bill doesn't explicitly ban emissions data reporting by private companies to the federal
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government They will report to us It's our data and then we will report to the f to the federal government Remember the
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the energy companies especially since we own the resource and we permit the
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resource They develop the resource on our behalf And so in doing so we have an obligation to collect the data and uh
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we'll report it to the to the federal government But but that still doesn't answer like is this currently happening
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like are is this a hypothetical ban on if sometime in the future the federal government decides to send officials
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into the Suncore offices in Calgary like this is a hypothetical ban of something that isn't even happening I don't know
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if it's hypothetical I mean we observed when uh they were wanting to do water testing that they were going onto
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people's property in Saskatchewan and doing water testing as a way of trying to I think develop some pretext for new
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emissions data they were going to come in with on fertilizer And the uh Saskatchewan government did something
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quite similar in saying federal agents are not going to be allowed to just show up on people's private land to start testing their dugouts and water And so
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this has already been demonstrated in the past that there have been issues and we just are anticipating that if there
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are future issues we're closing that door The emissions data u and we have to remember the other part of it is the
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government has made it illegal for companies to uh to to celebrate their emissions reduction The the bill C-59 I
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referenced They're not allowed to proactively talk about their positive uh progress that they're making on emissions because it's called
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greenwashing and then they could al ultimately face charges So the entity that is um shielded from those laws are
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the provincial government So they've actually put us into a position that if we want to be able to collect and report
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emissions data we have to collect it ourselves and we have to be able to report it ourselves So that's what we're going to do Thanks Lisa and Michelle
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We're going to go to Shay You've already had two questions What happens if a company doesn't comply well the we
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license them so they're going to be I don't see anything in here that would uh suggest that there's a penalty for them
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Well we can make that a condition of us uh doing the leases So there's lots that you can do in there's lots that you can
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do in regulation retroactively that but we we intend to enforce the law And I
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would think that the the the companies are probably going to be pretty happy with the fact that we're willing to take
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this reporting um uh obligation off their hands will probably be quite happy
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that because we will have a a government approved source of information that um
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perhaps they'll be able to then talk about they'll be able to to cite us when we're talking about our emissions
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reduction success So the the federal government has put us into a box and we're finding a way to be able to make
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sure that we're collecting the data and able to report the data with the rules that they put in place All right And
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Chase you have a question or Yeah still questions Um I guess just a couple yeah following up on on your answer to Lisa's
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question and you've had mentioned federal agents just would not be able to do that Is the suggestion there that they would be arrested and by whom and
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then just as a as a followup while we're still in the legal sphere Canada's top court has ruled that under the constitution's peace order and go good
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government cause Ottawa has the authority to enact laws that impact the entire country such as emissions So are you anticipating any sort of legal
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challenge from Ottawa on this and what is your argument to defend against i'll let Mike talk about trespassing and I'll let um Mickey talk about the extensive
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way that they've used peace order and good government that may not be um that may not be good lawmaking and we'd be
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intending to challenge that too Sure Yeah I mean just uh your question
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was in regards to trespassing federal agents and the premier mentioned that federal agents would not be uh
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authorized into those centers to collect that emissions data So I'm wondering like would there be someone that would arrest those federal officials what's
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the plan there well I arrest the federal officials I mean look I mean look
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property rights is a big thing in the province of Alberta Let's be very clear on that Um I would like to think that there would be a level of cooperation
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with the federal government uh whereby nobody actually has to get arrested I would say that uh like anything it's
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about a matter of talking to people and hopefully if there is a requirement for somebody to go on somebody else's land
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that they have they talk to the land owner I think is completely inappropriate and I agree with what the premier mentioned in regards to
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Saskatchewan Nobody should have a right to just go on uh somebody else's property whether you're being directed
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by the federal government or not and just go onto somebody's property and do whatever they think that that
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they've been directed to do So um I'm not going to go down the road whether or not hypothetically somebody's going to
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be arrested or not arrested uh right now we would just really hope that people uh in the federal government uh abide by
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you know really in respect to property owners and property rights
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Thank you very much Uh and to the second part of your question I mean we have a history with the federal government and
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uh its lack of respect for Alberta's jurisdiction We talked a little bit about section 92 today We lo we talked a
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little bit about our exclusive ability to develop our natural resources We've seen in the past the federal government
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enact nationwide legislation which was deemed unconstitutional We've had some recent wins in uh in court with respect
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to the impact assessment act We know that the federal government did not respect the Supreme Court's decision in
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that in that regard And what they ended up doing was making in our view inconsequential changes to the Impact
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Assessment Act in order to get around the Supreme Court of Canada's decision We are we we take the position that
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we're going to respect the court We're going to abide by the court uh especially when it is a ruling from our country's highest court However the
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federal government has not done that And so we continue to take these measures to protect our industry to protect uh the
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people who are looking to invest in Alberta And quite frankly uh with the decisions that the federal government
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has made with respect to um our oil and gas industry many companies are questioning whether they should invest
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in Canada We want to make sure that Alberta is the jurisdiction that they invest in that they know that there's a government that will defend them if they
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do and we're up for the challenge and we'll be there if we need to be Yeah just follow up I guess taking away from
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that then you do feel confident if there was such a challenge Um and then also going back to the 2 km deep border zone
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um yeah was designated essential infrastructure under that regulation back in January You had mentioned
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something about additional powers or extra tools for peace officers I'm just wondering what explicitly today gives um
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can assure Albertans that that border is safer in light of this legislation Well most certainly the border is secure and
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it is safe and we've done a number of measures both through public safety and through justice to make sure that that's
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that's happening We talked a little bit about the ability for peace officers to identify uh threats to to lay charges if
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there is a suspic suspected act of trespass for example We know that the uh
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peace officers will be able to they have the tools now with the amendments uh in
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order to uh exercise their discretion We can't speculate on what the police peace officers will do in that area but I
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certainly know that this amendment will give them the tools that they need to make those assessments to determine if there is a threat and to act if they
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need to be Do you want to add yeah it just from a police officer's perspective and I appreciate that it really is about
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lawful placement like any any law enforcement officer in uh in Canada
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quite quite frankly actually see in North America has to be lawfully placed And so you know uh and then what is
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going to happen after that lawful placement once that investigation starts to go down maybe it's a conversation that leads to nothing Maybe it's a
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conversation that leads to something more But really that the tool that the minister is referring to is about lawful
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placement for law enforcement officers Thanks Shay We're going to take a couple questions from the phone now and then come back to the room if we have time
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Operator could you put through our first caller please jean Emanuel Radio Canada
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Hello Good day Bonjour Premier Um first question like it's still just to clarify a bit if someone wants to go to the you
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know headquarters of Tenovas or Tamarak Valley uh and if the company doesn't
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want them they can just tell their security guard not to allow them in and or call the police already So why do you
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need to sort of add that into legislation what will change i'm not completely clear with this Well what
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we're asserting is that we own the emissions data that comes from the oil
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and gas operations that we license we permit and that develop it on our behalf Um as you know I mean there there are
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pretty clear divisions between what constitutes um federal property versus provincial property As you know during
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the Jasper fires we had to wait to be invited in to be able to assist the federal government in their response And
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we've also played a supporting role as they've done the redevelopment of that area And that's because federal parks
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like Jasper fall under federal jurisdiction And so we are asserting the reverse that these are provincial jurisdiction and that if they want to
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get emissions data they have to come to us as the owner and uh and a licency or
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a licenser of of these properties So that's I would just expect that that that's the way our our country um should
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operate That certainly seems to be what it's supported in the constitution and we're just asserting that they're not
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going to be able to work around us to be able to get the data that we own We uh we will share it with them as we collect
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it but we are going to be the ones who are collecting this emissions data belongs to us
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Okay Thank you for that Uh as a followup uh but property property rights were mentioned uh it's slightly off topic but
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still about a relationship between Alberta and the United States We've received many reports that small
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business owners who bought and paid American products like wine and bourbon
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cannot access their own product at the AGLC warehouse in Alberta They cannot sell it and they have to pay rent on it
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as well Uh why is the government or the crowd corporation essentially seizing private property that's already paid for
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um we've realized we have to implement the policy a little bit differently in
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Alberta because we do have a a private system and we do have a a respect for
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private property rights So we have just discussed um through our cabinet process how we might make an amendment to that
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rule to allow for those who have already paid and owned the product to be able to
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um to deliver it to those who want to to sell it Um but we won't be ordering any
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new product We would have I think the numbers we were given is that there was something like $76 million worth of
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product that has already been paid for or is on hold because of agents having
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done the licensing themselves individually And so we just felt like that wasn't fair in other provinces
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because they own all parts of that and own it on consignment and so are able to return it or not take the hit from not
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selling it It's a little bit of a different scenario but because we've got a private sector market we realize we had to make that modification But there
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um until we understand what the Americans are doing on on tariffs on April the second we we continue to have
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measures to support buying local Um you can you can make your oldfashioned with
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uh Canadian whiskey just as well as you can with American whiskey So we hope that um Albertans understand that if our
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people are being hurt here and our businesses are being hurt here we we we're really encouraging them to buy
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local buy Canadian and buy from countries that honor their free trade equip agreements Thank you And we'll
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take one more from the phones then we might have time for one more question here from the room Operator could you put through the next caller please rick
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Bell Post Media Uh good afternoon I've got a bit of a
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cold so it's going to be a grally question Um poll after poll is showing that the
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Carney Liberals could win an election and uh that is coming up Um
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Premier what uh are you prepared to deal with that
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with to deal with that possible some people would say probable but let's just
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keep it possible reality especially in light of the fact that when the Liberals
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won a second term there was huge frustration in Alberta When they won a
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third term there was even greater frustration in Alberta over that victory
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If they get a fourth term I'll leave it at that What how are you prepared to
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deal with what could come out of a victory by Carney and the Liberals
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well I can tell you um President Donald Trump seems to want the Liberals to win again He gave an interview with Laura
25:39
Ingraham yesterday saying that he'd prefer for the Liberals And you have to wonder why I think it's because the
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Liberals have made us weak over the last 10 years and he wants to see that weakness continue I certainly don't I
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want to see us be the strong and united country that I know we can be getting uh our products to market and working
25:57
together collaboratively to do so So I I'm have always felt that the key to
26:02
having a united country is to respect the constitutional authority and jurisdiction of each province I see that
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Quebec feels exactly the same way They did a a fair deal panel very much inspired I think by what we did here in
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Alberta And I think that you're seeing that the provinces are exerting their authority far more than they ever had in
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the past because we have to And you've seen the provinces work in a spirit of collaboration better than I've ever seen
26:24
in the in the time that I've been in this job or even in the past 10 years And so I'm I'm prepared to continue to
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support Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada That's been my mantra right from the beginning And I I hope that we have a a partner in the federal
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government who's willing to accept this new reality I just I quite frankly think that any government that's going to
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advocate that we stop uh building pipelines or block building pipelines or
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block a province from getting their product to market I I would hope that Canadians wouldn't vote for that government
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and uh supplementary If that if that were to
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happen how would you deal with the almost certain
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frustration disappointment frustration and even anger that
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uh there would be yet another Liberal government in Ottawa that might be
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unfriendly to Alberta well I would say that I've got a term sheet And my term sheet has a few key
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things on it Number one respect section 92A of the Constitution which we are
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reinforcing here today with this legislation Allow us the autonomy to develop our resources and get them to
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market Number two repeal the section the offending sections of Bill C69 which
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prevents us from being able to build pipelines End the tanker ban off the West Coast which prevents us from
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exporting our product internationally End the net zero power rags End the net zero vehicle standards End any talk of
28:00
an emissions cap End any talk of a methane emissions cap End the war on
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plastics which we also incidentally was another area that we won um at the at
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the federal court and treat uh Alberta as a partner Like those are very simple things Those should not be difficult
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things to to agree to because it's enshrined in our constitution So I will I will put put that term sheet before
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whoever wins the next election and I guess we'll see what the federal responses Thanks Premier Thanks Rick We
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have time for one more question We're going to go to James in the back here Uh Premier U Some people would argue that
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Mark Carney has an almost religious attachment to net zero and that has a lot of people worried Um one energy
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expert I spoke with today said that um Mark Carney is going to come for Alberta
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in a similar manner as as Trudeau and Gibo How worried are you i think there's
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a real danger that the the new prime minister is worse than the old prime minister I I haven't read his book
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values but if one of his values is keeping oil and gas in the ground and he thinks Alberta can operate on wind and
29:06
solar and battery power he's got another thing coming So I will um be able to make our case very clearly especially in
29:12
the changing environment we find ourselves in that our world needs more energy They need more energy from a
29:18
reliable democratic source and ally and the world is very interested in what Alberta has to offer and I would hope
29:25
that they would work in partnership with us to be able to get that to market So I haven't had that conversation with the
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new prime minister yet I intend to and I'll I'll have to vet it at that time But everything I've seen so far suggests
29:36
to me that you know ending the retail carbon tax just so consumers can't see it when they go and fill up their gas or
29:43
when they look at their home heating bill but then walloping our industry with uh potentially higher taxes Um
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that's just not going to fly So that's what I'm hearing from the prime minister is that he's he's doing a an action to
29:56
get political popularity but the effect on our industry here is no different than one we saw under Environment
30:02
Minister Steven Gibo and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau So can we work through that i don't know yet but I can tell you
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I'm I'm not encouraged by what I've seen so far And did you have a follow-up James or is that it perfect We'll ask
30:16
uh No one question no followup Uh yeah
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Uh so uh I mean Chinese tariffs are expected to come in tomorrow Uh that's going to make an impact on canola
30:28
exports Uh how concerned are you for Alberta farmers now dealing with tariffs from two biggest trading partners um and
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is the province planning for any sort of support well we have to look at what we're seeing I mean the Americans are expecting us to follow suit on the
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tariffs that they're putting on China and we did and the consequence is that
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Western farmers are paying the impact of that And the tariffs I'm talking about are steel aluminum and electric vehicles
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And as um Scott Mo pointed out no one wants the Chinese electric vehicles anyway Doesn't seem like there's a lot
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of appetite even in the Canadian market for electric vehicles And yet we've created a tariff war now with uh China
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that is going to harm our pork producers and our canola producers So there's an equity issue there and I think it is a
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divide and conquer strategy That said my agriculture minister R.J Secretson says that seed is the the uh the predominant
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export canola seed to China and I believe that is not included in the uh the new export tariffs So it should
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impact the uh it should reduce the impact on our on our producers and there is a bit of a array of uh of of good
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fortune Um uh Imperial Oil has a renewable diesel refinery that is going
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to be open within I think by by July And I'm told that the amount of canola that
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they're going to need to feed that renewable diesel refinery is about 2.5 million tons a year which just happens to be the amount that we're exporting to
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China right now So I think at least on canola there's a potential for a made in Canada solution to be able to help our
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farmers I don't have the solution uh on pork yet I I say I've doubled my bacon
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uh intake just as a as a measure of support I've also doubled my beef intake as well just as a measure of support to
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that uh to that sector as well But we we the sooner we can get past energy wars
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and food wars the better for the world I mean energy security food security is absolutely essential and we uh I think
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we are the the solution that the world is looking for But it is going to be a bit of a rough patch with with both of
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our largest trading partners Alberta is no exception Alberta uh has a has China
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as our second largest trading partner There's a10 billion dollars worth of product that goes between the the two
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jurisdictions It it's much smaller than our relationship with America which is $188 billion but it is still very
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significant especially in food products So we're quite worried about it Perfect And that's all the time we have for questions