EMBARGOED CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

A STRONG CANADA NEEDS A STRONG ALBERTA: REMARKS MADE BY BRIAN JEAN,

LEADER OF THE OFFICIAL OPPOSITION IN THE ALBERTA LEGISLATURE.
THE CD HOWE INSTITUTE, TORONTO, FEBRUARY 22, 2016.
Thank-you for those kind words. Thank you also to the CD Howe Institute for
your hospitality, and of course, for the opportunity to talk about some serious
matters of mutual concern.
I will get straight to it.
Here in central Canada, Alberta is one of your biggest customers. Therefore,
when Alberta has a hard time due to global commodity markets, a setback further
aggravated by bad federal and provincial policies which is a problem we are
having in spades you too will feel the pain.
Now obviously, theres not much anybody in Canada can do about the global
energy market. However, none of us should have to suffer the effects of bad
policies.
So, lets talk about problems, solutions, and where we go from here.
If you were to tell me that the first difficulty is the economic policies of Albertas
new NDP government, well, Id be with you. The response of our government to
$30 oil has been, to put it charitably, ill-conceived. We dont doubt their good
intentions. However, even as the oil price tumbled from eighty dollars, to seventy,
to sixty, fifty, forty and finally down to $27, our government launched a review of
Albertas royalty structure to make sure Albertans got some ill-defined fair share.
Trouble is, everybodys share was circling the drain. In this, they showed the
situational awareness of an ostrich.
For an industry built on trust, the very act of calling for a review raised concerns.
Sure enough, while the NDP buried their heads in the sand, revenues
plummeted, massive investments were deferred, and one hundred thousand
oilfield workers were losing their jobs. And as it turned out, Albertans have been
receiving their fair share, as we have said all along, by the way. In fact, due to a
cocktail of new tax and regulatory changes, we get such a fair share that Alberta
is now less attractive than our most important competitors.
Friends, in downtown Calgary, things are so quiet you can park on the street.
Outside the Petroleum Club. But our government was just getting started.
So, for our already embattled energy industry, they followed up with a $3 billion
carbon-tax burden a tax its competitors do not share. And of course, its a
stealth-tax that ripples out through the economy and means higher prices for all

of us. Then, having signalled their disapproval of the oil industry, the NDP
denounced coal. They announced the end of coal-fired electrical generation. For
context, more than half our baseload comes from coal. What are they proposing
instead? Wind.
Friends, however necessary it may be to reduce Albertas carbon emissions, you
cannot believe that something generating fifty-five percent of all Albertas power,
power that must be there at the flick of a switch, can be replaced with a power
source thats only there when the wind blows.
However, we read your auditor-generals report on your own provincial
governments power planning. Theres likely not much anybody from Alberta can
tell somebody from Ontario about broken down power-planning processes.
And so it goes on. While ordinary Albertans are struggling to make ends meet,
theyre seeing their taxes go up in the middle of a recession. Why? To expand
what is already one of the biggest-spending governments in Canada. Alberta
currently spends $2,000 a year more per person than BC next door, for
essentially the same services.
I dont want to belabour the point. But policy matters. Because of bad policy,
Alberta now has the highest corporate and small-business tax rates west of
Ontario. Were heading for credit downgrades that will undercut our reputation as
a safe place to invest. The property market is depressed. And by raising the
minimum wage by 50 per cent, the government encourages employers to find a
way to have two people do what was formerly done by three. The result? More
and more of Albertas young people are looking for work outside the province.
Bad policies, bad results.
Unfortunately, the people who should understand what Albertas energy industry
means to the rest of Canada, Im talking about our new federal government here,
they have their own bad policies. They could help us. But, by restricting our
market access, by standing in the way of pipeline progress, they have chosen
instead to make things worse.
There are three shovel-ready oil pipeline proposals three each of which could
move land-locked Alberta product to market. However, our federal government
has deep-sixed each of them, for now anyway.
The Northern Gateway, which would have run from northern Alberta to Kitimat, is
effectively out-of-the-game following the prime ministers ban on tankers in the
waters off northern BC. A second BC project terminates in Vancouver: Kinder
Morgans Trans Mountain project could raise capacity by twinning an existing
pipeline on an existing route.

But, like the third project TransCanadas Energy East, founded on reversing the
flow of an existing pipeline to eastern Canada it faces new regulatory hurdles.
Both will be delayed another year.
What they want you to believe is first that this years delay is to review the NEBs
approval process, and so to restore public confidence in the National Energy
Board, and second to consider whether building more pipelines will generate
more greenhouse gases.
But, its all one way. Nowhere, is there any encouragement given to the creators
of jobs and prosperity. For pipeline companies, its all snakes and no ladders. Not
to mention nonsense! The National Energy Board pipeline review process is
actually one of the most thorough in the world. As for attributing to pipelines the
emissions of the oil that may flow through them lets not forget the emissions
generated by the 650,000 barrels a day of offshore oil that eastern Canada
presently imports.
It is a curious mindset indeed, that puts honest Canadians out of work in western
Canada, while supporting some very dubious regimes, among them Saudi
Arabia, the author of our present oil woes.
Federal policy boils down to red tape and delays, for the sake of red tape and
delays.
Friends, a strong Canada needs a strong Alberta. Follow the money. Over the
decades, Alberta has built an energy industry that is a Canadian national
champion. It is because of what we do in Alberta, that Canada is the fifth-largest
oil producer in the world. Thanks to its energy industry, Alberta, with about a
ninth of Canadas population, was responsible for nearly a quarter of the dollar
value of all Canadas exports.
No offence to my hosts here in central Canada, but the value of Alberta energy
exports in 2014 was more than half as much again as Canadas second biggest
export, which is the very fine motor vehicles, the cars and trucks that come out of
Ontarios assembly plants.
And the billions of dollars that this has generated in Alberta, spreads itself all
across Canada. For a start, the oilsands plants may be located in Alberta, but a
lot of the key components are fabricated in Ontario. The Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers is on record that 45 percent of oilsands investment is
actually spent in central Canada. That would be 45 per cent of $30 billion a year.
Because until recently, $30 billion is what the oilsands industry was investing,
every year. To build the three oil pipelines presently under consideration means a
further investment of $30 billion with almost $430 billion in economic spinoffs for
all of Canada over the next 30 years. Private investment, I should add, not one
public dollar.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Trudeau was in Calgary, promising to accelerate

$700 million of infrastructure for Alberta, just to help out. But $700 million
financed by a deficit budget doesnt look much, compared to the billions of private
investment that Ottawas policies are putting at risk.
Albertans arent asking for special handouts. All they are asking for is for their
governments to support their industry, and fairness in how their tax dollars are
spent.
You know, in the eighties, we used to have a bumper sticker in Alberta that read,
Oil pays my taxes and feeds my family. As surely as it feeds families in Alberta,
oil pays taxes and feeds families in Ontario and Quebec as well. It also comes
back to Ottawa as tax revenues, paid on corporate profits to the federal
government. It comes back as income taxes paid by the men and women who
worked in Albertas energy sector, and elsewhere in Canada, to service Albertas
energy sector.
All of these taxes help pay for equalization, and for the federal services that make
life better for all Canadians. Thats often forgotten: for decades, Alberta has been
a massive contributor to equalization one of the four so-called have provinces.
In fact, among all the provinces and territories, only Ontario contributes more to
Canadas wealth than Alberta. In economic terms, Albertas energy industry is
quite simply Canadas crown jewel! And as Canadians, we hope and expect that
our federal government would recognise that, and would celebrate the source of
so much national good fortune.
By all means, Canada should be known for its resourcefulness. But, being from
Fort McMurray, I can tell you, when youre sitting on one of the worlds largest oil
reserves, theres nothing to be ashamed of in being known for your resources!
Ladies and gentlemen Canada has been built on great, visionary enterprises,
mighty endeavours that brought us together as one people, one great nation. The
Canadian Pacific Railway, that in the nineteenth century, famously bound the
nation together with a ribbon of steel. The national highway system, that with the
very recent completion of the road to Tuktoyaktuk, means that Canadians can
now, finally, drive to every coast of their own country. Our network of airports.
These are the arteries of our national life, of trade and commerce, of unity and
kinship, the things that make Canada so much more than a loose gathering of
regional interests, but instead a country, a nation, a single people with its own
great purposes.
Pipelines are in that class. Pipelines enable the wealth of one part of Canada, to
flow for the benefit of all parts of Canada. You know, pipeline opponents want
you to think there is something new about the pipelines were talking about today.
There isnt. The truth is that Canada has more than 900,000 km of pipelines, of

all sizes. Half of them are in Alberta. And every day, they move the fuel we need
to live, safely, reliably and to everybodys benefit.
Sometimes, I worry that as a country, we may be losing our confidence. That we
will strive, but only for bronze. And yet we Canadians, of all people, should not
shrink from greatness. Canada was united through great national projects.
Projects like Energy East, or TransMountain, or Northern Gateway these are
the railroads of the 21st centurythe tools of national unity that allow Alberta to
share our wealth with other Canadians. Only bad policy, the failure of vision and
a reluctance to dream big, stand in our way.
The goal then, is plain: across the country, Canada needs governments to follow
policies of responsible energy development.
In Alberta, we will do what we can do. We are a little battered at the moment. But
you can be sure of this, with so much at stake for Canada, and with the
prosperity of so many Canadians at risk, all over the country, and not just in
Alberta, the Wildrose Party will work hard to ensure the NDP faces a united
conservative opposition in 2019.
That is why under my leadership, and at the direction of Wildrose MLAs and
members, our Party has begun reaching out to other Albertans, to those who
voted PC last time. Some of whom may well feel politically homeless. But they
dont have to be. After all, however we voted in May, we all voted for the federal
Conservatives in October.
We all want the same things, good policies, good governance, and a government
in Alberta that respects the values that built Alberta fiscal responsibility, strong
families, world-class health and education systems and a vibrant democracy. The
values, ladies and gentlemen, that in the minds of so many of us, also define
Canada. Our party is based upon these proven principles, policies that are known
to work that care for the weak and allow hard-working people to enjoy the
rewards of their enterprise.
And so, in just over three years, we are hoping to lead Albertas united
conservative alternative to seek a mandate from the people of Alberta. And when
we have it, and we will, we will do what only we can do, to repair the damage. We
will reduce spending, and allow revenues to catch up. We will cut taxes. Using
incentives and attrition, we will pursue efficiencies in public administration. We
will follow a policy of responsible energy development that doesnt handicap our
economy against investors.
In short, a united conservative movement in Alberta, that puts together the right
policies, can help move the national discussion on the economy back in the right
direction. We will do, ladies and gentlemen, the things it will take for Alberta to

lead again. To lead in growth, to lead in putting Canadians back to work, to lead
in creating and sharing wealth for all Canadians.
In Wildrose, we dont believe the future of Alberta, needs to be doom and gloom.
Nor need it be the future for the rest of Canada. But we need each other. You
need the colossal demand that our energy industry generates. Without it, you
cannot meet your enormous potential. And in Alberta, we need your support.
Without it, we have little chance of changing minds in Ottawa.
Our two provinces which together account for more than half the wealth of our
country we need to do ourselves and our neighbours in Confederation a favour,
and deal with the policies that are the problem, whichever government they
belong to.
We are all Canadians. Canada can only be successful, when Alberta is
successful. When we succeed, you succeed. When you succeed, we succeed.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it should be.