Jason Nixon
MLA, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre
COP26 has ended in Glasgow with Canada making more empty pledges while the world’s largest emitters continue to feed their energy needs and develop their economies.
While some called Canada’s empty pledges a victory, the reality is Canada’s government foolishly capped the most ethical, environmentally friendly oil and gas in the world.
And this point cannot be stressed enough: Canada did not provoke a single large-emitting economy to follow their empty pledges and rhetoric.
In short, Canada’s government failed at COP26.
Now, the federal government holds on to the belief that Canada has a social licence to propose things like tripling the carbon tax.
Global leaders did not follow Canada on their empty pledges and they’re right to be skeptical of their leadership. Socialists in Alberta were even burnt by the guy Trudeau appointed as his Environment Minister.
After standing on stage endorsing Rachel Notley’s climate plan exactly six years ago in 2015, Stephen Guilbeault stabbed Alberta’s socialists in the back when he supported the National Energy Board’s ruling that it would assess the downstream emissions of Energy East – a pipeline project that would’ve seen Canada clean up its own internal energy consumption.
International investors and the world’s largest emitters took notice.
Canada needs to be focussing on investing in actual emission reductions and mitigation projects here at home. Instead, it finds itself foolishly throwing targets at the sky to dazzle the chattering classes to feed their appetite for buzzwords and self-flagellation.
Alberta’s government on the other hand stayed at home to make investment announcements that keeps our industry competitive, cuts emissions, and gets Albertan’s back to work.
By focussing on practical solutions and tangible emissions reduction results here at home, Alberta is protecting the environment while creating thousands of jobs in construction, trucking, electrical engineering, and more.
That’s why Alberta’s government also invested over $100 million in industrial energy efficiency and carbon capture, utilization and storage projects across Alberta’s oil and gas industry. As we maximize the value for Alberta’s clean hydrocarbons with commercial scale funding, regulatory enhancements, and knowledge sharing – Alberta can export emissions reducing innovation technology throughout the world along with the clean, ethical hydrocarbons.
That’s actual progress.
International investors are taking notice of Alberta’s policies and carbon infrastructure too. Dow Chemical announced the world’s first zero-emission ethylene derivatives complex will be built in Fort Saskatchewan, creating thousands more jobs. As that announcement was made, CEO, Jim Fitterling, said on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, “You have to have policies that support moving to low-carbon emissions and that’s what we’re doing up in Alberta.”
He’s right.
That’s exactly what we’re doing here in Alberta.
And we want to re-assure our international partners and investors – Alberta will do everything in its power to provide certainty to our largest industry, tangible results with industry and the talented workforce that supports innovation here in Alberta.
We won’t wait for Canada to dictate terms to us. Alberta will protect our industry and grow our resources.