A Fair Deal for Alberta within Canada
On election night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said to Albertans:
“I’ve heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you.” As Premier of Alberta, I look forward to working with Mr. Trudeau to make that promise a reality.
Albertans have made a net contribution of over $600 billion in transfers to the rest of Canada since 1960. In the last five years, we have made an average annual net contribution to the rest of Canada of $23 billion, even as our province has suffered its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
We are proud to have shared our good fortune with our fellow Canadians when times were good here and not so good elsewhere.
But what frustrates us is governments in Ottawa and other parts of the country impeding us from developing our resources, and selling them to the world at a fair price, so we can continue to fund high-quality social services in Alberta and across Canada.
Despite our frustration, we’re not going to lose our heads. Albertans are proud Canadians who just want to see our federal system work as it was intended to, as it is spelled out in our Constitution.
Nothing we are asking for is unreasonable. Everything we are asking for is within the federal government’s power to do today. And none of it would hurt any other province.
We are asking for a Fair Deal for Alberta within Canada.
One that respects the Constitution and lets us do what we do best, what Alberta has always done: get to work, grow our economy, and generate an outsized share of Canada’s wealth.
There are many things we have asked for, but our urgent priorities – the very least that Ottawa can do to show it is listening – can be reduced to these five:
PIPELINES
A firm guarantee of a fixed date for completion of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, including an assurance that the rule of law will be respected and applied. Ottawa has all the tools to get this done.
EQUALIZATION REBATE
We are asking for the money that Alberta should have received, were the Fiscal Stabilization Program not arbitrarily capped when our economy tanked between 2015 and 2017. There is no cap on equalization payments funded disproportionately by Albertans to help other provinces, so there should not be a cap on payments to help ours. Retroactive uncapping of the FSP was unanimously endorsed by all 13 Premiers at last week’s Council of the Federation meeting.
C-48 AND C-69
Repeal Bill C-48 (the “Tanker Ban”), and repeal or significant amendment of Bill C-69 (the “No More Pipelines Act”) to respect provincial jurisdiction and ensure new projects get timely approval.
FLOW-THROUGH SHARES
Alberta needs jobs, now. Flow-through shares are a proven way to kick-start job-creating investment. We are asking Ottawa to expand them to include green technology, such as carbon capture utilization and storage to reduce GHG emissions in Canada’s oil and gas sector, well reclamation, and tech start-ups in Alberta.
EQUIVALENCY AGREEMENTS
Alberta’s methane regulations are stronger and cheaper than equivalent federal government regulations, as a recent study co-funded by the federal government shows. We are asking that Ottawa follow the data and not impose unnecessary additional federal burdens on Alberta’s economy. I will be coming to Ottawa to meet Mr. Trudeau on December 10th. The Prime Minister has had my list for more than a month, but I have not yet heard a response from him. I want to work with him to bridge our regional divide, but anything less than a substantial commitment from him on these priorities will reinforce Albertans’ legitimate frustrations.