KENNEY LASHES OUT AT ‘URBAN-GREENLEFT ZEALOTS.’
LASHES OUT AT LEFT
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney accused the “urbangreen-left zealots” of denying Indigenous people a chance of a prosperous future as the fallout from the Teck mine decision reverberated throughout Canada.
Teck Resources withdrew its application Sunday night to build a giant oilsands mine in the province’s northeast.
Kenney’s United Conservative government accused the Liberal government for the decision, particularly the dense fog of regulatory uncertainty created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s environmental policies.
“There is absolutely no doubt that this decision was taken in large part because of regulatory uncertainty, endless delays created by the national government, as well as the general atmosphere of lawlessness that we have seen take hold of parts of our country and much of our economic infrastructure in the past three weeks,” Kenney said at a press conference Monday.
“I really say to the urbangreen-left zealots who have been trying to appropriate the cause of First Nations that what in fact you are doing is slamming the door shut on their economic and social future. The government and the people of Alberta are determined to overcome that zealotry from the far left to be partners in prosperity with our Indigenous people.”
He added, “Reconciliation does not mean locking Indigenous people into permanent poverty."
Meanwhile, Rachel Notley’s opposition Alberta NDP accused Kenney of treating the project like a political football and putting the federal government in an impossible situation, forced to choose between stark opposition in Quebec and a furious bloc of western Canadians.
Trudeau’s government agreed with Teck Resources’ reasoning that “global investors and consumers are increasingly looking for the cleanest products available and sustainable resource development.”
However, the company also said — in a section not quoted by the federal government, “Unfortunately, the growing debate around this issue has placed Frontier and our company squarely at the nexus of much broader issues that need to be resolved.”
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was blunt. “Make no mistake: Justin Trudeau killed Teck Frontier,” Scheer said.
On Sunday, after the Teck decision was announced, people in Kenney’s office complained about the federal government’s silence in recent weeks about the project, something the premier interpreted as a lack of any real desire to approve it.
“The only real communications from the feds was trial balloons going up in the media,” said one senior Alberta government source, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the relationship with the federal government.