Morneau told students fiddling with the equalization program would be challenging and something the government would only undertake with a great deal of caution _ an answer Caitlyn Madlener says she found unsatisfactory and insulting.
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Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi also spoke with Morneau and urged him to push forward with the Liberal government’s promised infrastructure investment plan.
“We’ve seen the former (Conservative) government really, for the last 10 years, see no progress on pipelines. It’s not something we’re talking about right now”, he said.
Moreneau’s discussions in Calgary included employment insurance, which he called “an important buffer” for Albertans struggling with the sparse job market. “We will be thinking about all sorts of policy measures that we can take in order to improve the situation”.
“There’s clearly a worry among people in the sector that they do need to find a way to get access to tidewater”, Morneau said in a media scrum following the town hall.
His remarks came as North American stock markets wrapped up one of their most turbulent weeks in recent memory, as oil prices and the dollar plunged further amid disappointing economic news at home and overseas.
Minister Morneau will also hold roundtables with members of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and leaders from the energy and environmental sectors. However, earlier this week, the British Columbia government said it can not support Kinder Morgan’s expansion project because the company is not offering sufficient details of its spill-response plans. Some participants asked for the tax treatment of the energy industry to remain as it is.
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During the student town-hall, Morneau was grilled on whether the equalization system – transferring funds from have to have-not provinces – could be tweaked to help resource-dependent provinces like Alberta weather the crude price rout, especially since Alberta has historically paid so much into the system.
