Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Government of Alberta)

By Justin Goulet

Jason Kenney says energy sector ignored in throne speech

Sep 24, 2020 | 11:33 AM

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is not pleased with the federal government’s speech from the throne, or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s address to the nation.

Following Wednesday’s throne speech, Kenney issued an official response.

He stated that Alberta is disappointed that instead of listening to provinces across Canada, the Trudeau Liberals “doubled down on policies that will kill jobs, make Canada poorer and weaken national unity”.

His statement in full can be read here.

On Thursday morning, the Alberta premier responded to Trudeau’s national address, which put a focus on COVID-19. Trudeau said some parts of the country are already in a second wave of the pandemic.

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“Yesterday’s throne speech included 6,783 words. Not one of them was about the largest industry sector in the Canadian economy. Not one of them mentioned our oil and gas sector, which helped to pull Canada through the last global recession; not one word recognizing the crisis in that sector and in energy-producing provinces like Alberta,” Kenney said.

He added that the Trudeau government did not acknowledge “western alienation”, or the creation of “real jobs, right now”.

Kenney referenced his meeting with Ontario premier Doug Ford, Quebec’s Francois Legault and Manitoba’s Brian Pallister last week, calling on the federal government to focus on two key priorities in the throne speech: health and the economy.

“We also asked for action to show fairness in the federation through reform of a fiscal stabilization program. These issues were not addressed in yesterday’s throne speech,” he said.

“There was space for every bright, shiny object, every possible political distraction…but not one word abut health transfers for the provinces that are carrying 80 percent of the costs as our population ages and we cope with a pandemic.”

Kenney claimed that the speech from the throne presented endless policies that would “further hammer the largest sector of the Canadian economy”.

“[There was] no recognition that what the federal government must do at this point is first to do no harm. All we are asking of the Government of Canada is to let this province and our resource industries to get off their knees, to get back on to our feet during the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Yesterday’s speech reflected a total lack of understanding about the economic crisis through which we are living as a country.”

“It was a fantasy plan for a mythical country that only exists apparently in the minds of Ottawa Liberals and like-minded Laurentian elites, that forgets about the regions and the resource workers who been the motor of Canadian prosperity in recent decades.”

Kenney said the oil and gas industry is the largest export industry in the country, and typically exports $100 billion of value every year.

“We’re never going to export $100 billion, or a fraction of a fraction of that in wind and solar-generated electricity. This is the largest export industry that is critical to our balance of payment, to our national wealth, it generates 20 percent of the Government of Canada’s revenues, it employs half a million Canadians,” said the premier.

“The energy industry, more broadly, supports 800,000 jobs directly and indirectly and all we saw yesterday was a litany of policies that would further damage that industry at a time of critical need.”

A video of Jason Kenney’s response can be viewed below.

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