This week, the provincial government unveiled a tax incentive scheme meant to encourage the development of petrochemical plants in Alberta.
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A key plank in that plan is Energy East, a controversial pipeline that has drawn the ire of many along its route through Eastern Canada. A proposal to expand an existing pipeline to the Vancouver area has met similar objections in British Columbia.
Notley said she is pleased Trudeau is coming to visit, but there’s one thing she wants to make crystal clear. Trudeau said his government plans to work quickly to change those guidelines.
Trudeau didn’t make any commitments around EI, but noted that his party campaigned on easing access to the program in times of need.
That sounds remarkably like an announcement made last week by federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi to speed up the allocation of $1 billion of unspent infrastructure spending for Alberta and Saskatchewan. “Now, Alberta and Albertans are facing challenging times, and quite frankly, Canadians help other Canadians when they’re facing tough times”. “That’s just how Canada works and that’s what we’re going to do”, Mr. Trudeau said.
In the short term, Finance Minister Bill Morneau is dangling a $250-million stabilization fund for provinces enduring “extraordinarily hard economic situations, ” a figure that would be more symbolic than substantive given the size of the Alberta economy.
With the NDP policies in this country, the Saudis flooding the world markets with cheap oil to kill off competition and Obama killing Keystone to satisfy his left-wing environmental backers and now Hillary piling on also, I feel Alberta will be a wasteland as more and more jobs will dry up, just as Notley and crew hope for.
“What I would be looking for is a real strong indication from the federal government that they’re serious about pipelines, they’re serious about getting market access for us and that they’re willing to put some political capital on the line”, Scholz said in Ottawa, where he participated in a conference.
“Our national government is acutely aware that Alberta is struggling”, he said.
According to Ms. Notley, the extra federal funding will help out-of-work Albertans and should begin to flow in “weeks to months”.
“Who supports Energy East?” said interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose during question period.
“We won’t shout at or threaten Canadians in our principal markets, ” she said. “So there may be an opportunity to help there”, she told reporters on Parliament Hill. Because of these changes, young workers and new Canadians face eligibility requirements for EI of more than 900 hours of employment. A worker in Atlantic Canada needs only 420 hours and qualifies for 45 weeks of benefits.
The Conservatives had argued strongly in favour of Keystone XL, but Trudeau said their approach had marginalized community concerns and ignored environmental science, leading to a lack of headway on pipeline projects. He will also meet with oilfield service companies and associations, and visit a YWCA – now busier due to increasing unemployment.
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Notley and Trudeau donned helmets to tour a training facility run by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Edmonton Wednesday evening. In the last three months of 2015, Suncor posted a net loss of more than $2-billion due to asset writedowns – a result of the depressed crude prices – and a foreign exchange loss on USA dollar-denominated debt.
