Premier Notley and the NDP government have once again failed Albertans. They have failed our environment. They are failing future generations. They are failing First Nations and Indigenous Albertans.
Where once they talked about climate leadership, they now deal in climate opportunism.
Climate change does not care about borders. It isn’t good enough to have a homegrown climate plan for Alberta only. Alberta needs to be a leader on climate change and environmental policy. We need to support change, not just nationally, but internationally.
We cannot hold the environment hostage over a single oil and gas project.
Furthermore, the judiciary is not our enemy. Treating the court and its decisions with disrespect also disrespects the rule of law. Premier Notley is a lawyer. She should know better.
Indigenous and First Nations consultations are vitally important and must be conducted honestly, meaningfully and with compassion. It’s time we recognise the true meaning of reconciliation. In the vacuum of real political leadership in this country, it has been left to our courts to force us to do so.
This is part of a disturbing pattern from this NDP government, where their commitment to social change starts and ends with whatever they need for a photo op or a sound bite. On issues ranging from AISH income supports for our most vulnerable citizens to mental health care to protecting our environment, they only support change that is convenient for them and their hopes for re-election.
This NDP government has doubled down on the resource roller-coaster that we are still so dependent on. Today’s fiscal update revealed that any progress we are making on the deficit is due almost entirely to resource revenue increases. In Finance Minister Joe Ceci’s 2018 budget, the long-term debt reduction plan explicitly hinged on the completion of the Trans Mountain expansion project.
By virtue of their poor fiscal planning, the NDP are creating a desperate Alberta dependent on a single pipeline, at the cost of all else.
We Alberta Liberals understand that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is important, but we firmly believe in balancing our environmental interests with our economic needs, while respecting Indigenous constitutional rights. What we are seeing from this government is not balance. It is desperate electoral politics.
The Alberta Liberals support remaining a part of the federal climate plan and taking action to address our fiscal and economic overdependence on oil and gas.
- David Khan, Alberta Liberal leader
