Notley fighting for all Albertans whose salaries depend on oil
Energy sector and jobs are on the rebound, says Marg McCuaig-Boyd.
As your minister of energy, the person responsible for advocating for your energy resources, I need to respond to Licia Corbella’s column in Tuesday’s Calgary Herald — and set the record straight.
Ms. Corbella’s column repeats a series of ridiculous UCP talking points but conveniently ignores the very clear fact that Premier Rachel Notley has been fighting for Albertans and our resources every single day.
While Ms. Corbella is calling Premier Notley names, Premier Notley is out there fighting for you. The premier has travelled to every corner of the country, standing up for the families whose livelihoods depend on our oil and gas resources. Premier Notley has stood up to provinces that have tried to hold Alberta’s economy hostage and has led the charge to push Ottawa into action. I’ve had so many folks come up to me and express their thanks to Premier Notley for her efforts. Thanks to those efforts and the efforts of Albertans from all walks of life, a growing majority of Canadians support a new pipeline and support our right to get top dollar for the oil and gas resources — resources that belong to all Albertans.
Three years ago, when we were first elected, Premier Notley and our team faced a daunting task — to pull Alberta’s economy out of the ditch the former Conservative government had driven it into. Since then, the record speaks for itself.
We’re cleaning up the mess of waste and excess left by the former government — such as the Sky Palace and taxpayer-funded golf club memberships. Rather than working for the benefit of Conservative elites and political insiders, we’re fighting for everyday workers
Our team faced a daunting task — to pull Alberta’s economy out of the ditch the former Conservative government had driven it into.
and families.
About 90,000 new jobs were created last year, with thousands more in recent months. The energy sector has grown by 6.4 per cent over the last 12 months, largely on the strength of Alberta’s oilsands. We just celebrated a new $400-million investment in Nexen’s Long Lake South West project. And because of our efforts to diversify, we’re seeing new private investment in the petrochemicals sector, including Inter Pipeline’s facility, now under construction, with up to 13,000 workers expected at the peak, and 880 full-time jobs once it’s up and running.
Let’s focus on Calgary for a moment. While there’s more work to do, Calgary created over 31,000 new full-time jobs and employment grew by over 3.3 per cent last year. The Conference Board of Canada pointed to projects like the Calgary Cancer Centre and the Green Line LRT as reasons why Calgary’s economy is growing and creating jobs.
We know what a Conservative government would do. They would hand a massive tax giveaway to the wealthiest, paid for by cuts to education, privatized health services, and thousands of fired nurses and teachers. And they’ve been clear that they don’t care about the people and families a plan like that would hurt.
Just the other day, one of their MLAs was at a community forum, and when he was asked about how their plan would affect everyday people, he said, “I’m sorry to tell you, but it’s going to hurt. Will it affect you? It absolutely will.”
We’re doing everything it takes to get a pipeline built, just like we have since Day 1. We’re not giving up.
Our focus right now is a clear and reliable timeline to resume construction and get our resources to market. Working people and families deserve nothing less, and that’s who we’re fighting for.