I recently had the pleasure of meeting with the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group (SPOG) to discuss the UCP government’s priorities relating to opening the province back up for business after four difficult years of NDP governance.
I also wanted to find out what was on the minds of local business and industry leaders when it comes to oil and gas projects in the region. Boy, did I get an earful.
While the NDP was busy imposing carbon taxes on Albertans for heating their homes and ferrying their kids to hockey practise, issues around mounting red tape and industry uncertainty were piling up in many regions of the province.
My own constituency was no exception. This is proof positive that the previous government completely ignored the issues affecting a huge portion of the folks they were supposed to be looking after in favour of a deeply ideological agenda based on a top-down, non-transparent way of creating laws and regulations.
No more. I made it clear to the 140-odd constituents and non-constituents who were kind enough to come out to the SPOG event that the UCP government intends to cut red tape, speak up for our world-class oil and gas industries in Ottawa, fight against the efforts of foreign-funded anti-pipeline groups, and generally bring hope back to an industry that has contributed so much in the way of prosperity and profile to this country.
We’ve already begun work on many of these priorities, specifically in passing Bill 2 (an Act to make Alberta Open for Business) and Bill 4 (the Red Tape Reduction Act). These are part of a staggering 13 bills that we passed over the course of a marathon summer Session at the Provincial Legislature. But they are only the beginning. We’ve also implemented more than 55 additional platform promises, many of which are specifically aimed at getting the province’s oil and gas workers back on the job.
From service rig reclassification to appointing an Associate Minister for Natural Gas, we’re working to improve market conditions for our energy industry one platform commitment at a time.
As Environment Minister, I have my own part to play in reinvigorating the province’s oil and gas industries. Alberta has always been an environmental leader – we were the first jurisdiction in North America to put a price on carbon way back in 2007.
The UCP government will build upon the good work done by previous governments while rejecting the NDP’s approach of nickeling and diming Albertans by establishing the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction System or TIER. TIER is a realistic approach to reducing emissions that will also reassure industry and investors and protect our most valuable sectors from the federal carbon tax backstop.
Importantly, all of these initiatives are aimed at creating certainty and increasing competitiveness for our most important economic drivers – the folks who pull valuable assets out of the ground and turn them into energy. We want our oil and gas resources to power the world, and we will create the freest and fastest-moving economic conditions in which they can do just that.
- by Jason Nixon, Alberta's Minister of Environment and Forestry and the MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre
