‘Tough work ahead,’ says Nixon
Alberta’s Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon met with business-minded Calgarians Friday morning at a talk hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Before a brief discussion period with Chamber president and CEO Sandit Lalli, Nixon reaffirmed his government’s commitment to encourage energy development in the province and repeal the provincial carbon tax.
Nixon said “market access for all commodities is our highest priority for this province going forward,” adding it’s important that the world knows “Alberta is open for business.”
“We know there’s some tough work ahead. The province’s finances are not in good shape and this is going to require us as a government to be nimble and innovative,” Nixon said to a crowd of a couple hundred people at the Westin.
The UCP government’s repeal of the provincial carbon tax, Nixon said, has paved the way for the establishment of the Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) system which will be implemented by 2020.
“TIER is a realistic approach to reducing emissions that will also reassure industry and investors and protect our most valuable sectors from the federal carbon tax,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure that it’s being invested in reducing emissions on the heavy emitter side... they’re the ones who are going to be paying into it and the focus will be heavily on investing in technology that can pull that off.”
Nixon’s also made note of the UCP’S recent announcement of the formation of three sub-regional task forces to protect the province’s caribou population.
“The establishment of these task forces represent an effort on our government’s part to ensure that any plan regarding caribou population recovery recognizes Alberta’s economic interests and protects the province’s job creators,” he said.
Following the meeting, Nixon added consultation from Indigenous peoples in the task force’s northeast, northwest and west-central regions, will be an important part of the process.