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Alberta

Alberta’s Energy Road Ahead Has Never Been More Important: Brian Jean – Minister of Energy and Minerals

Published

5 months ago

6 minute read

From EnergyNow.ca

By Brian Jean – Minister of Energy and Minerals of Alberta 

Recently I had the opportunity to speak at The Road Ahead, Alberta Energy 2024, presented by EnergyNow at the Calgary Petroleum Club.

The road ahead for Alberta in 2024 is an important one. Alberta is at the crossroads on many key energy issues which I wanted to expand upon.

Let me start with some quotes from the last Throne Speech that will give you a sense of where Premier Smith wants Alberta’s world leading energy industry to go.

This is a key one: “Alberta’s government will ensure the entire world understands that the words “Alberta” and “energy” are inextricably linked for generations.”

All credible energy forecasters see the oil and gas industry as being the globally dominant energy player for decades to come. This means that Alberta, which produces energy in a better way than any other jurisdiction, will have opportunities and jobs in the energy industry for the children and grandchildren of those who are its current employees. Not only is Alberta’s resource one that will last, but it is also one that will lead the world.

Again, from the Throne Speech: “Our province is the fourth-largest producer of oil and gas in the entire world – and is, far and away, its most environmentally responsible one. Alberta will not be content with fourth place – not when our province’s energy reserves and environmental technologies are second to none.”

Our Premier recognizes that not only do we have  globally significant oil and gas resources in the ground, but we also possess the significant knowledge and skills of Alberta’s energy workers and energy companies. That said, as we continue to develop energy projects of all types, more skilled trades will be needed and Alberta is committed to developing these skilled trades “in province” where possible.  This will allow Alberta to continue to develop oil and gas in the most responsible way possible which will continue to evolve as new technology is developed.

All that heads us towards success. As a government we need to be bold enough to create the mechanisms of success for our energy industry and we are committed to do this.

Also from the Throne Speech: “Not only will Alberta be the greenest energy producer in the world, our government will ensure we create one of the most efficient, timely and red-tape free jurisdictions on the planet to invest in energy – whether that be conventional, non-conventional, renewable or otherwise.”

Premier Smith has tasked our government with improving our regulatory capacity. She wants us to create the flexibility and nimbleness to have world class results in all our energy spaces. We will take bold steps in the oil sands as we work with Pathways Alliance to create the world’s first carbon abated major oil field.

We will take bold steps with non-conventional producers to make the most of our gas and liquids industries in the Montney and Duvernay. And we will continue to take bold steps to use our energy industry to drive economic opportunities and reconciliation for our indigenous communities.

We will take bold steps to make sure that Alberta continues to be one of the top global places to build wind and solar, while protecting farmland and viewscapes.

We will use the skills and Alberta know-how that spring from our oil and gas expertise to make breakthroughs in lithium development and helium exploration.

Alberta is the ideal place for energy investments in established energy sectors and emerging energy-related sectors like petrochemicals, hydrogen, ammonia, lithium, and helium.

We will continue to lead the world in carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. A technology that we have deployed at scale faster than almost any other jurisdiction.

Finally, Alberta will take advantage of our tremendous natural gas resources to make Alberta a global centre for petrochemical production in general. But more than that, we will specifically be the global leader in green petrochemicals made from our energy resources and greened by sequestering the carbon used in their production.

These are the bold ambitions that Premier Smith and our government have for Alberta’s energy sector. Alberta has the expertise, and the duty, to remain a major global energy supplier.

And allow me to end with one last quote from the Throne Speech: “The world needs more Alberta energy – not less – and Alberta’s government intends to empower Albertans to deliver it!”

Our government isn’t afraid to declare that Alberta is energy and energy is Alberta!

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Alberta

Alberta awash in corporate welfare

Published on July 26, 2024

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Matthew Lau

To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.

First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in  Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.

The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.

For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.

Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.

Consider these federally-subsidized projects.

A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.

When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.

As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.

Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.

Author:

Matthew Lau
Adjunct Scholar, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial

Published on July 25, 2024

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy 

By Ray McGinnis

Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.

Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”

On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”

One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”

Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.

Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.

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