The policy objectives laid out in the federal government’s throne speech virtually ignored a Canadian energy sector in crisis and will result in job losses, Alberta’s premier said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
“Alberta is disappointed that instead of listening to Canada’s provinces, the federal government doubled down on policies that will kill jobs, make Canada poorer and weaken national unity,” Premier Jason Kenney said.
READ MORE: Throne speech pledges extended wage subsidy, help for women and taxes
In a speech read by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, the Liberal government pledged to continue to offer a federal wage subsidy it brought in when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada.
It also promised to put everyone under the employment insurance system in an attempt to help hard-hit workers, even if they previously didn’t qualify for the decades-old program. And it made promises related to childcare, gender equality, fighting climate change and racism.
READ MORE: Trudeau dangles national childcare system in throne speech with few hints of fiscal restraint
The energy sector, which has been struggling to bounce back ever since oil prices collapsed several years ago — and whose challenges became more acute when the pandemic hit — received only a brief mention in the speech.
“Canada cannot reach net zero without the know-how of the energy sector, and the innovative ideas of all Canadians, including people in places like British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador,” the throne speech said.
The speech went on to say that the government will “support manufacturing, natural resource, and energy sectors as they work to transform to meet a net-zero future, creating good-paying and long-lasting jobs.”
READ MORE: Oil and gas spending fell by 54% in last quarter: Stats Can
“Earlier today, Statistics Canada showed the steepest decline ever for jobs in the resource sector — 43,000 people lost their good-paying jobs,” Kenney said Wednesday.
“Every one of these jobs lost represents a family that is disrupted, the uncertainty of how to pay bills or a mortgage, and questions about how folks are going to get food on the table.”
Kenney held a news conference in Edmonton Thursday morning, where he acknowledged that there are some individual policies in the throne speech which he supports, including the extension of the federal wage subsidy. However, he once again stressed that in a throne speech of about 6,800 words, “there seemed to be countless priorities except a realistic plan to bring back investment in our largest sectors to create real jobs.
“My message here today is that we are facing the most serious economic crisis here since the 1930s,” Kenney said. “Albertans aren’t seeking bailouts and subsidies. What we are asking the government of Canada to do is no harm. First do no harm to the resource industries that are the backbone, not just of the Alberta economy, but the Canadian economy.
“There was zero recognition of that imperative in yesterday’s throne speech. To the contrary, there was a recommitment to a series of policies that, if implemented, would do further damage to industries that are struggling to survive — not just oil and gas, many areas of manufacturing, forestry, the diversification efforts in petrochemicals and fertilization in Alberta and so much more.
“That throne speech was filled with endless distractions and bright, shiny objects. It was not focused on the central imperative that should unite leaders across partisan and geographic lines, which is protecting lives and livelihoods.”
Kenney called on Ottawa to “hit the pause button on policies that unfairly and unconstitutionally target the economic engine of Canada.”
“The next thing they can do is to demonstrate real support for Alberta by recognizing the fiscal calamity we face with the collapse of provincial revenue by living up to the original intent of the fiscal stabilization program and giving Alberta back $6.5 billion — less than one per cent of what Alberta has contributed to Canada.”
The premier said that demand was not akin to asking for a handout but rather a request to “support our province in the same way that Alberta has supported Canada for generations.”
Kenney argued Canada needs Alberta’s energy sector to recover if the national economy is to do the same, and pointed to Ottawa’s carbon tax and Bill C-69 as being impediments to that process.
Last month, Kenney’s government provided a fiscal update. Alberta has been pushed into a historic deficit of $24.2 billion, more than triple what the provincial government projected in its February budget. The fiscal situation is widely seen as the result of struggling oil prices and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ MORE: Premiers seeking at least $28B boost to health care ahead of feds’ throne speech
Kenney also said the throne speech suggested the Trudeau government’s priorities are not aligned with those of him and several other premiers who met last week and came up with a list of asks, including $28 billion to be given to provinces to spend on health care.
Kenney said he will meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts Thursday to further discuss the policies laid out in the throne speech and the way forward.
“Yesterday’s throne speech implied — if all of these policies, good intentions were to be implemented — hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of new federal spending. The question is: how are we going to pay for that? We need to pay for it by increasing economic growth, which will not happen unless we bring investment back to this country. We will not generate levels of economic growth to support that scale of government spending by turning our back on the resource industries and related sectors that have been the key pillars of the Canadian economy,” he said.
“So this is the message I’ll be taking to my provincial colleagues.”
Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said in a statement Thursday she was “alarmed” by Kenney’s comments.
“This premier is so desperate to distract Albertans from his inability to create jobs and restart economic growth that he is continuing his fake fight with Ottawa at the expense of the best interest of the people he was elected to represent,” Notley said.
“In addition to losing 50,000 jobs even before the pandemic, and in addition to shrinking Alberta’s economy with his $4.7 billion corporate handout, Jason Kenney made it clear today that he is willing to put his own political interest over the possibility of a long-awaited and long overdue national drug plan. This self-serving decision will undermine the quality and affordability of the health care of millions of Albertans. This is an abdication of leadership. Albertans deserve a leader who will do the hard work of building a real economic recovery plan, a leader who will do whatever it takes to get Albertans back to work, and a leader who is laser focused on the challenges facing Alberta, not fake fights with federal politicians.”
–With files from Global News’ Amanda Connolly and Caley Ramsay, and The Canadian Press’ Jordan Press and Bob Weber
Comments