Alberta Votes 2019: The week so far- jobs, oil and gas and cracking down on crime

Alberta’s political parties are in full-on campaign mode as Election Day approaches on April 16th. Each day the parties release information about their policies and platforms, candidate information and reactions to the day’s news. It can be difficult to try and keep up with it all, so from now until the election we’ll regularly compile information released by the parties and present the main points here.

For more information, click on party names to visit campaign websites.

(Parties listed in alphabetical order)

Alberta Party

Alberta Party announces plans to invest in new technology material sciences and bitumen pucks and create jobs from Alberta’s oil and gas resources.

“As Wayne Gretzky once said, you have to skate to where the puck is going. Passively sitting around and hoping the market works is yesterday’s approach. We need to aggressively get in the game and make big moves to generate more refining and petrochemical processing here in Alberta.”

Stephen Mandel – Leader of the Alberta Party

An Alberta Party government will energize the development of refining and petrochemical processing, creating more value within the province and thousands of good jobs for Albertans.

Supporting the Development of CanaPux

● Commonly referred to as bitumen pucks, CanaPux are developed by CN and Wapahki Energy, owned by Heart Lake First Nation (approximately 300 km northeast of Edmonton).

● The technology converts bitumen into a solid puck product that is capable of being exported by rail or other methods (rather than pipeline).
● This is a potential revolution for Alberta’s oil sands industry — one that enables Albertans to realize the full value of their resources by avoiding pipeline politics.
● An Alberta Party government will expedite approvals for the pilot facility and contribute financial support for one-third of the pilot ($16.7 million).

Increasing the Alberta Innovates budget with a focus on material sciences.
● Alberta Innovates contributes to the creation of new industries in Alberta and strengthens existing ones. It diversifies the economy and creates jobs and increases exports.
● Alberta Innovates currently funds research that focuses on turning bitumen into products other than gas, diesel and other fuels such as asphalt, vanadium batteries, plastics and carbon fibre.
● The development of these alternatives is a long term approach that will help to increase demand for our resources, create jobs, lower our exposure to global oil prices, and help diversify our economy.
● The NDP have reduced the Alberta Innovates budget going from $288M in 2018-19 to $244M in 2020-21.
● An Alberta Party government will not only reverse those cuts but increase the total Alberta Innovates budget by 30% to $375M by 2020-21 and direct the additional funds to a rapid expansion of research into new uses for our resources.

Expanding Refining in Alberta
● Once Phase 1 is proven out, an Alberta Party government will support construction of Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Sturgeon Refinery.
● This helps Alberta expand its refining capacity, creating more value here in the province and creating thousands of skilled jobs for Albertans.
● An Alberta Party government will expedite the review of necessary approvals and expand its Bitumen Royalty in Kind (BRIK) program.
● Construction of both Phase 2 and 3 have a combined total construction expenditure of an estimated $18.0 billion which will result in an increase in GDP of $16.0 billion, and create 140,000 person-years of employment.
● Once construction is complete, the additional the two phases will increase GDP by an average of $5 billion per year, and result in an estimated 13,000 additional jobs per year.

Energizing Petrochemical Processing
● To stimulate petrochemical processing in the province, an Alberta Party government will establish a Gas Royalty in Kind program that takes a similar approach to the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program.
● This will have the Government of Alberta take a portion of its natural gas royalties “in kind” rather than in cash. This will enable the government to market the natural gas in ways that stimulate gas processing and petrochemical plant expansions in the province.
● An Alberta Party government will also establish Alberta’s petrochemical diversification program as a 10 year program, rather than the NDP’s unpredictable annual program. This would provide stability and certainty to the market, helping attract more investment.
● The petrochemical diversification program will also be adjusted to move from a royaltycredit to a more efficient subsidy program.

NDP

Rachel Notley pledges to expand heavy-load roads and build new access highway to Fort McMurray, creating 7,500 jobs.

“We will never forget the sight of families fleeing out of the city on Highway 63 while flames licked at the trucks and cars. It was one of the scariest moments of people’s lives,” said Notley. “Fort McMurray needs a second route out and we will get it done. We will keep families safe and help people sleep a little easier a night.”

Rachel Notley – Leader of the New Democratic Party of Alberta

Under Notley’s plan, the government would expand the Alberta High Load Corridor, a 6,500 kilometre network of designated routes across Alberta that can accommodate heavy loads with heights of up to 12.8 meters and weights of up 800 tonnes.

The High Load Corridor is considered among the very best in North America, giving Alberta industry a distinct competitive advantage. The six-year, $1.35-billion expansion would:
• Add 3,500 kilometres, for a new total of 10,000 kilometres.
• Create 7,500 construction jobs.
• Support northern industrial development, with specific benefits for oil and gas.
• Extend and improve the network in southern Alberta, with specific benefits for the renewable energy industry as more, larger wind turbines are transported.
• Maintain roughly 150,000 oversized/overweight permits issued annually.

Notley’s plan to expand the High Load Corridor builds on previous announcements such as the Highway 40, Highway 43X bypass and the Vinca Bridge. The Vinca Bridge will shorten trips from the Industrial Heartland to Fort McMurray by 200 kilometres, saving industry $10,000 per trip. Industrial stakeholders including heavy haul carriers, oil sands developers, pre-fabricated home builders, and municipalities have been consulted by the Government of Alberta.

A New Way Out. For a Safer Fort McMurray.
Rachel Notley is committed to building a secondary access highway in Fort McMurray, which would ease congestion, improve access, and boost safety throughout the region. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo formally endorsed the East Clearwater Highway project in 2016 as the preferred option to respond to recommendations from the Fort McMurray fire and build a new evacuation route for all communities between Anzac and Fort McKay. The Government of Alberta has invested $5 million into pre-design and planning.
Consultations will be held with Indigenous peoples, municipalities, industry, and area residents.

More processing, upgrading and refining. Made-In-Alberta.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that global demand growth for petroleum products in the coming decades will be strongest in the petrochemical and aviation fuel sectors. Alberta has the potential to seize tens of billions in global petrochemical, upgrading and refining investment over the next decade, but it will not happen on its own. Rachel Notley’s Made-in-Alberta plan to significantly increase the volume of oil and gas that is processed, upgraded or refined in Alberta before it’s exported. Notley’s plan has already attracted $12.6 billion in private investment and created over 11,700 direct jobs.

2030 target and strategic goals:
• Secure $75 billion in mid-to-downstream private capital investment and 70,000 jobs.
• Double Alberta’s current petrochemical production within established methane and ethane value chains.
• Leverage the emerging propane value chain currently under development to attract tertiary manufacturing facilities.
• Capture more value from liquid rich natural gas produced in Alberta and B.C. by incenting new infrastructure connections between Alberta’s four value-added industrial clusters (Heartland, Red Deer, Grande Prairie and Medicine Hat), and emerging coastal Liquefied Natural Gas export terminals in B.C.
• Leverage the commercialization of new partial upgrading technologies to unlock more refining markets in the U.S. and globally to meet growing demand for aviation fuel and low-sulphur marine fuel. Export up to 30 per cent more bitumen on available pipeline space.

UCP

UCP outlines plans to tackle growing crime wave.

“We will do everything within our power to stop the revolving door in our justice system, and to keep Albertans safe.”

The UCP has promised more judges, more prosecutors and stronger laws part of a plan to tackle Alberta’s growing crime wave.

Kenney cited statistics that reveal a growing crime problem in Alberta:

Auto theft is way up and Alberta leads the country in auto-theft—at three times the national average with 62 stolen vehicles per day, on average.¹ The Alberta Motor Association says there has been a 32% increase in vehicle thefts since 2014². 29% percent of all vehicle thefts in Canada happen in Alberta, according to Statistics Canada³
By 2018, the rural crime rate in some communities rose by 250% compared with 2011.⁴They included communities such as Innisfail and Bonnyville where property break-ins were up 94% and up by 133% respectively between 2016 and 2017.⁵
In 2018, Edmonton Police Service reported⁶)that since 2015, assaults were up 11%; property crimes were up 13%, and sexual assault incidents were up 17%.
In 2018, Calgary Police services reported⁷ that over the last five years there was a 6% increase in property crimes, a 25%increase in financial robberies, a 26.3% increase in sex offences, a 27.6% increase in robberies, and a 35.9% total increase in assault crimes.⁸
Maclean’s reported last November that 7 of the top 10 cities in their Canada’s Most Dangerous Places 2019 ranking (based on 5-year change in crime severity index) are from Alberta.⁹

Kenney stated a United Conservative Party government will hire 50 new prosecutors and support staff, a $10 million investment.

Kenney also announced that a UCP government will boost funding by $20 million over four years (69 percent) to the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), who deal with children’s exploitation, domestic violence, stalking, and gang issues, among others. The $20 million funding increase will:

Double ALERT’s funding for its sub-unit, the Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) unit that tracks, arrests and prosecutes child pornographers
Double the funding for its sub-unit, the Integrated Threat and Risk Assessment (I-TRAC) unit, the police unit that helps combat domestic violence and stalking
Create a new Opioid Enforcement Team

A UCP government will also work with ALERT to obtain a charitable foundation (akin to the Calgary and Edmonton Police foundations) which can then attract additional funds from the private donors.

Kenney also promised that under a UCP government Albertans would know the truth about crime in their province.

“We will pass the Public’s Right to Know Act. This bill will require an annual report to the legislature containing detailed provincial crime statistics.”

A UCP government would also replace the Parole Board of Canada with an Alberta Parole Board for offenders serving sentences of under two years.

And because crime victims can often fall through the cracks, a UCP government will also conduct an immediate review of the current model of victim service delivery, victim assistance funding, and victim compensation to ensure optimal assistance to victims of crime.

A UCP government would also invest $5 million to increase access to Drug Treatment Courts as an effective way of helping drug addicts to leave the cycle of crime and addiction through treatment, testing, incentives, sanctions and social support.

The responsibility for law enforcement is shared with the federal government. A UCP government will therefore also negotiate with the federal government (and with other provinces as necessary) to:

Secure additional Queen’s Bench justice appointments to reduce the backlog in superior courts.
Ensure that Grande Prairie be given its own Queen’s Bench.
Develop and put in place a specific Repeat Offender Policy.
Ensure the return of criminals who have fled to other provinces, to face justice in Alberta. (According to Alberta police forces, flight-across-borders has become a critical problem given the number of jurisdictions involved, especially in western Canada.)
Review current Criminal Code sentencing principles to ensure that in rural crime offences, specific facts be considered by a sentencing court as aggravating factors, and that the principles of deterrence and denunciation be prioritized.”

In 2018, the UCP released its Alberta Rural Crime Strategy, calling for a provincially regulated police response system linking all enforcement agencies to pursue the relatively small number of organised, repeat offenders who are responsible for most rural crime.

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Cross-Canada NGL corridor will stretch from B.C. to Ontario

Published on July 12, 2025

Todayville

Keyera Corp.’s natural gas liquids facilities in Fort Saskatchewan. Photo courtesy Keyera Corp.

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Will Gibson

Keyera ‘Canadianizes’ natural gas liquids with $5.15 billion acquisition

Sarnia, Ont., which sits on the southern tip of Lake Huron and peers across the St. Clair River to Michigan, is a crucial energy hub for much of the eastern half of Canada and parts of the United States.

With more than 60 industrial facilities including refineries and chemical plants that produce everything from petroleum, resins, synthetic rubber, plastics, lubricants, paint, cosmetics and food additives in the southwestern Ontario city, Mayor Mike Bradley admits the ongoing dialogue about tariffs with Canada’s southern neighbour hits close to home.

So Bradley welcomed the announcement that Calgary-based Keyera Corp. will acquire the majority of Plains American Pipelines LLP’s Canadian natural gas liquids (NGL) business, creating a cross-Canada NGL corridor that includes a storage hub in Sarnia.

“As a border city, we’ve been on the frontline of the tariff wars, so we support anything that helps enhance Canadian sovereignty and jobs,” says the long-time mayor, who was first elected in 1988.

The assets in Sarnia are a key piece of the $5.15 billion transaction, which will connect natural gas liquids from the growing Montney and Duvernay plays in B.C. and Alberta to markets in central Canada and the eastern U.S. seaboard.

Map courtesy Keyera Corp.

NGLs are hydrocarbons found within natural gas streams including ethane, propane and pentanes. They are important energy sources and used to produce a wide range of everyday items, from plastics and clothing to fuels.

Keyera CEO Dean Setoguchi cast the proposed acquisition as an act of repatriation.

“This transaction brings key NGL infrastructure under Canadian ownership, enhancing domestic energy capabilities and reinforcing Canada’s economic resilience by keeping value and decision-making closer to home,” Setoguchi told analysts in a June 17 call.

“Plains’ portfolio forms a fully integrated cross Canada NGL system connecting Western Canada supply to key demand centres across the Prairie provinces, Ontario and eastern U.S.,” he said.

“The system includes strategic hubs like Empress, Fort Saskatchewan and Sarnia – which provide a reliable source of Canadian NGL supply to extensive fractionation, storage, pipeline and logistics infrastructure.”

Martin King, RBN Energy’s managing director of North America Energy Market Analysis, sees Keyera’s ability to “Canadianize” its NGL infrastructure as improving the company’s growth prospects.

“It allows them to tap into the Duvernay and Montney, which are the fastest growing NGL plays in North America and gives them some key assets throughout the country,” said the Calgary-based analyst.

“The crown assets are probably the straddle plants in Empress, which help strip out the butane, ethane and other liquids for condensate. It also positions them well to serve the eastern half of the country.”

And that’s something welcomed in Sarnia.

“Having a Canadian source for natural gas would be our preference so we see Keyera’s acquisition as strengthening our region as an energy hub,” Bradley said.

“We are optimistic this will be good for our region in the long run.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

Meanwhile, the governments of Ontario and Alberta are joining forces to strengthen the economies of both regions, and the country, by advancing major infrastructure projects including pipelines, ports and rail.

A joint feasibility study is expected this year on how to move major private sector-led investments forward.

Alberta

Alberta school boards required to meet new standards for school library materials with regard to sexual content

Published on July 10, 2025

Government of Alberta

Alberta’s government has introduced new standards to ensure school library materials are age-appropriate.

School libraries should be safe and supportive places where students can learn and explore without being exposed to inappropriate sexual content. However, in the absence of a consistent standard for selecting age-appropriate library materials, school boards have taken different approaches, leading to concerns about safeguards in place.

In response to these concerns, and informed by feedback from education partners and the public, Alberta’s government has created standards to provide school boards with clear direction on the selection, availability and access to school library materials, such as books.

“Our actions to ensure that materials in school libraries don’t expose children to sexual content were never about banning books. These new standards are to ensure that school boards have clear guidance to ensure age-appropriate access to school library materials, while reflecting the values and priorities of Albertans.”

Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education and Childcare

The new standards set clear expectations for school library materials with regard to sexual content and require school boards to implement policies to support these standards.

Standards for school library materials

Under the new standards, school libraries are not permitted to include library materials containing explicit sexual content. Non-explicit sexual content may be accessible to students in Grade 10 and above, provided it is age-appropriate.

“Protecting kids from explicit content is common sense. LGBTQ youth, like all children, deserve to see themselves in stories that are age-appropriate, supportive and affirming – not in material that sexualizes or confuses them.”

Blaine Badiuk, education and LGBTQ advocate

School boards must also regularly review their school library collections, publish a full list of available materials and ensure that a staff member supervises students’ access to school library materials. School boards will have to remove any materials with explicit sexual content from their school libraries by October 1.

School board policies and procedures

All school boards must have publicly available policies that align with the new standards for selecting and managing library materials by January 1, 2026. School boards can either create new policies or update existing ones to meet these requirements.

These policies must outline how school library materials are selected and reviewed, how staff supervise students’ access throughout the school day, and how a student, parent, school board employee or other member of the school community can request a review or removal of materials in the school library. School boards are also required to clearly communicate these policies to employees, students and parents before January 2026.

“A robust, grade- and age-appropriate library catalogue is vital for student success. We welcome the ministry’s initiative to establish consistent standards and appreciate the ongoing consultation to help craft a plan that will serve our families and communities well.”

Holly Bilton, trustee, Chinook’s Edge School Division

“Red Deer Public Schools welcomes the new provincial standards for school library materials. Our division is committed to maintaining welcoming, respectful learning spaces where students can grow and thrive. Under the new standards for school libraries, we remain dedicated to providing learning resources that reflect our values and support student success.”

Nicole Buchanan, chair, Red Deer Public Schools

Quick facts

The new standards will apply to public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools.
The ministerial order does not apply to municipal libraries located within schools or materials selected for use by teachers as learning and teaching resources.
From May 26 to June 6, almost 80,000 people completed an online survey to provide feedback on the creation of consistent standards to ensure the age-appropriateness of materials available to students in school libraries.

Related information

Ministerial Order
School library standards engagement
Reference Materials: Content warning: this document contains graphic content that may be disturbing to viewers and is not appropriate for young viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.