MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Alberta Minister of Environment and Parks and area MLA Jason Nixon says recent talks with his federal counterparts over a variety of issues were worthwhile.
Nixon joined Premier Jason Kenney and a number of other provincial cabinet ministers on a recent trip to Ottawa to meet with government cabinet ministers, MPs and others.
Nixon met with Catherine McKenna, federal minister of environment and climate change, as well as Bernadette Jordan, minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“Our main objective when we went down there was to articulate our need for a fair deal for our province,” said Nixon. “We were focused on key issues like TMX being built, and other major economic concerns, including our desire for an equalization rebate.
“I think we had good conversations with our federal counterparts and we made a loud and clear statement by all showing up that Alberta is not happy with the current situation and we expect a fair deal inside Confederation.”
He held discussions with McKenna on a number of specific issues.
“We talked a lot about species at risk and major environmental issues,” he said. “We talked about methane regulations. We are seeing the feds moving toward regulating methane within the province, which would have a significant negative impact on our industry.
“We want to be able to regulate that ourselves in the province and think we can do that better than them.”
They also spoke about the controversial Bill C-69, which involved assessments of industrial projects.
“We’ve called it the no more pipelines law,” he said. “One of the big messages I was delivering was that Bill C-69 needs to be replaced or at the very least severely amended to make sure that we can get projects approved in the province of Alberta.”
Asked whether he believes the federal government will grant the province’s request for a $1.7 billion equalization rebate, he said, “It’s early days, but I think they were receptive to the conversation.”
