On January 20 when the rest of the world was congratulating President Biden on his inauguration, Jason Kenney was attacking Biden’s character and threatening trade wars because Biden revoked Trump’s executive order approving KXL.
Not satisfied that he’d made his point, Kenney appeared on Fox TV and other media outlets to condemn Biden’s disrespectful treatment of “a Canadian government,” an ally and a friend.
Leaving aside the obvious fact that Kenney’s characterization of Alberta as “a Canadian government” is misleading—Alberta is a “subnational” government or “provincial” government, it is not the federal government and notwithstanding what Fox viewers may think, Kenney does not speak for Canada. Or all Albertans for that matter.
So what did he say?
Biden did something wrong
Kenney said Biden retroactively vetoed an existing pipeline.
Trump’s executive order approves the KXL border crossing facility (a 30” diameter pipeline including the first shut off valve or pumping station and appurtenances). This is part of an incomplete project, it is not an “existing pipeline.”
The order says it may be terminated, revoked, or amended at any time “in the sole discretion” of the President. Lawyers may argue about the meaning of “sole discretion” but it looks like Biden has the power to do what he did.
Kenney is fighting for Alberta’s energy industry and the jobs KXL would create
Let’s start with Alberta energy industry. Not one major oilsands producer has issued a press release condemning Biden’s actions.
While TC Energy issued a press release saying it’s “disappointed” and will consider its options, TC Energy’s CEO is not all over the airwaves complaining about being mistreated.
If Biden’s decision was such a big blow to the industry why isn’t the industry standing shoulder to shoulder with Kenney calling Biden out.
Ah, but what about all those lost jobs?
Kenney job loss numbers include American jobs and are overstated. He said 2000 people lost their jobs. TC Energy said it’s 1000, and many of those jobs were in the US.
Kenney said over 59,000 new jobs would have been created. TC Energy said of the 59,000 indirect jobs, only 17,000 were Canadian jobs, the remaining 42,000 were in the US. But hey, Mr Kenney, feel free to start a trade war over American jobs.
It’s Trudeau’s fault
Kenney said Biden wouldn’t have concluded Canada wouldn’t stand up for the industry if the federal (Trudeau) government had responded “with strength” when President Obama refused to issue the presidential permit in 2015.
Stephen Harper was prime minister when Obama rejected KXL’s new route in Jan 2012. Harper was PM when Obama vetoed the GOP bill approving KXL in Feb 2015. Trudeau was elected 2 days before Obama rejected the presidential permit for KXL in Nov 2015.
Harper had three years to bring Obama around. Trudeau had 2 days and by then it was too late. So tell me again which federal government failed to respond “with strength” to Obama’s intransigence.
The kitchen sink
In addition to arguing Biden disrespected Alberta by failing to consult with Canada prior to revoking the permit (this from the man who didn’t consult with Albertans on revoking the Coal Policy, teachers’ pensions, school curriculum, etc.) Kenney said:
- Biden’s climate change concerns are non-existent because the oilsands have reduced carbon emissions intensity per barrel by 30%. True, but total emissions increased by 23% between 2000-2018 due to a 53% increase in activity.
- Canada’s emissions goals are more stringent than Biden’s. Not true. Canada was ahead of Trump’s standards but will fall behind when Biden reinstates the policies Trump gutted, enacts new fuel-efficiency standards, new methane emissions standards, and a new “social cost of carbon” metric as part of the cost-benefit analysis of government regulations. (Meanwhile back in Canada Kenney is trying to kill the federal carbon tax in the Supreme Court of Canada).
- Trudeau should fight Biden as hard as he fought Trump over NAFTA and the steel and aluminum tariffs. The analogy doesn’t fit. Trudeau was not able to stop Trump from renegotiating NAFTA or imposing tariffs, all he could do was negotiate hard to get the best outcome for Canada. There is no room for negotiation with respect to the KXL permit, it’s either revoked or it isn’t.
- If Trudeau fails to act, Kenney will go further on his Fair Deal demands. What’s left? Secession?
Damages/compensation
Kenney invested $1.5 billion in equity and put up $6 billion in loan guarantees repayable after KXL was completed. KXL is dead. The $1.5B and whatever was drawn against the loan guarantee is gone.
Kenney says he’ll sue for damages or compensation. Legal scholars say he’s unlikely to succeed.
Even if TC Energy succeeded in a NAFTA challenge and Kenney recouped some of his losses, KXL would not be built and all those jobs and oil revenues would not magically reappear.
What really happened
Kenney said he invested in KXL to offset the “political risk” of Trudeau not completing TMX, but he’s also admitted he’s “cautiously optimistic” TMX will be completed. The Trudeau political risk was not real.
Kenney said if he hadn’t invested in KXL the project would have died (so he boldly went where no sane investor would go?).
Kenney invested in an enterprise that was exposed to the risk of an election in a foreign jurisdiction where Democratic presidential hopefuls like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were vying with Joe Biden for the leadership of the Democratic party. He placed a $1.5 billion dollar bet that regardless of who became the Democratic nominee, Trump would win the election.
Now that Biden has revoked the presidential permit—both TC Energy and the Building Trades of Alberta union say this was “predictable”—Kenney is desperately looking for someone to blame for his imprudence and hubris.
Well guess what, Albertans may have been distracted by Covid, the revocation of the Coal Policy, and a million other things, but we know Kenney’s bluster is not about the loss of jobs and oil revenues, it’s about the loss of Kenney’s credibility as a prudent financial manager and steward of Alberta taxpayer dollars.
It’s a simple as that.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Should be required reading for all Albertans, most especially UCP supporters.
Thanks Esme. The big question is the one Wason raises, would they understand what really happened or would they stubbornly cling to their biases (it’s all Biden and Trudeau’s fault, damn those Dem/Libs).
I am not sure about that, UCP supporters either cannot read or can’t be bothered!
A bit off topic . Miss SoapBox I am a semi retired forestry worker concerned about what is happening in this country and the provinces in regards to our politicians. As well as the Corporations that swing so much influence in our country and world wide. I know we have “watch dogs “ monitoring these entities and politicians but I don’t think this is enough.
Last week I happened to watch a program on the knowledge network called “The Price We Pay” about tax havens legally created by governments for the corporations of the world. I had difficulty sleeping since I watched this documentary and have been fuming ever since.
I won’t go on about any more of my internal feelings in case I loose it.
You are a professional person and have knowledge that I do not. So I am asking you if there is a legal way to form a grassroots organization to raise money to hold these corporations and politicians responsible for their actions that intentionally create financial disasters and avoid moral and illegally legal arrangements that cost citizens disparity in our lives. Something that can be set up like a go fund me but directed to the above cause. I realize this will take years but we the people can not keep being kicked around like we have been.
There are many professional retirees that must be upset because there are no boundaries as to who is getting ripped off. There is no one party that is doing worse than the other in the end . How can we as a grassroots organization reach out to the citizens? It would take a vast amount of funding to start and carry out a project like this. This would not be over throwing governments but holding them responsible.
I apologize if my communication skills are lacking, but I would like to here back from someone one this issue please.
Jim
we do not need any more groups to fight all the issues we are having as citizens. We have too many and they divide us because they all need money and they all need volunteers and they end up almost useless.
What we need is to fight directly through our MLAs and MPs to reform our political system and the very first step would be defining what a government is instead of the constant use of us and they which just confirms we do not have a government. We have a major corporate lobby called the government that represents business interests instead of its citizens. The government needs to represent what it is supposed to be – US.
All of us need to fight together to change the whole system but incrementally so that we do not get paralyzed and overwhelmed.
My opinion just to add to your interesting post
I have to differ with you Carlos. MLA’s and MPS must tow the party line. That equals nothing fixed. As for too many identities and volunteers working towards their own ideals, that may be so, but I see things with Corporate and political corruption getting worse. We are in a Facisum world and we citizens must try and stop it.
I agree Jim with everything you said but if we are to win this battle we cannot have all the groups out there fighting for the same objectives. Uniting them is almost impossible.
I have no solution really but I have said many times in this blog that I sense revolution brewing and what happened in the US is just the beginning unfortunately on the wrong side of the spectrum. I agree with you that all the parties are in the bag with corporate power or under the tentacles of neoliberal ideology. Even the social democratic parties like the NDP cannot avoid it.
To be honest I do not see a good end to where we are today. We are way too buried in the strong influence of money everywhere and trade globalization was the last big stone thrown on our backs. Hopefully we can find a strong way.
Jim and Carlos, this was a helpful discussion in that it highlights our growing frustration with political parties that allow our democratic institutions to erode in the interests of big business.
I lean toward Carlos’ position. I worry that there are too many groups out there fighting for so many causes our impact is watered down. It’s for this reason that I’ve focused on putting my money and my volunteer support into just a few of them. I volunteer for and donate to the NDP, I support Eyes Forward (which is fighting to protect public healthcare) and CPAWS (which is focused on the environment). I write to my MLA (who sends me pablum responses) and cc the Premier and Rachel Notley. I sign petitions, attend information sessions, write this blog and jump on opportunities to educate those around me.
As Jim said, often it doesn’t feel like we’re making much headway with the bigger issue of protecting our democracy, but I worry that starting a new group will be too little too late for the 2023 election.
Just my thoughts.
Susan, I would really like to see you take another run in the 2023 election, this time for the NDP. I hope you will consider it.
That was a lovely comment Jo-Ann, but running in the 2023 election just isn’t in the cards for me for a number of reasons. I will however do everything I possibly can to support my local NDP candidate so Rachel can replace Kenney and the rest of his clown show in government.
Thanks for clearly laying out the history. Agree that Mr. Kenney is just trying to deflect blame for his own folly.
Anita, almost everything Mr Kenney said in his press conference made no sense. Even the little things. He said he spoke with TC Energy’s executive Russ Girling about Biden cancelling the KXL permit. Given that Mr Girling retired as CEO effective Dec 31, 2020 and was replaced by François Poirier, effective Jan 1, 2021, the person Kenney should have been speaking to was Mr Poirier, not Mr Girling. I can’t help but wonder whether this is an indication of just how important (or not) Jason Kenney is in the grand scheme of things.
Here’s the media release re: Girling and Poirier. https://www.tcenergy.com/announcements/2020/2020-09-21-russ-girling-to-retire-as-president-and-ceo/
You know Kenney has lost it when he brings up his concern for “good union jobs.”
Kenney despises labour and especially unionized labour. His hypocrisy is infinite.
Indeed Public Servant. Kenney said “My thoughts are with the 2,000 people who lost their jobs today, and all those who are coping with the devastating consequences of this decision.”
His crocodile tears mean nothing to the 11,000 public health workers who will be leaving AHS, the hundreds of workers across all government ministries including Alberta Energy and Agriculture, to say nothing of the university staff who lost their jobs due to his vicious budget cuts to higher education.
There is nothing that rings more hollow than Kenney’s love for the unionized worker.
March 2023 is the earliest we can fire Jason and his band of incompetents.His bluster and finger pointing has gone on about 2 years too long for all of us Albertans.In the corporate world his foolish decisions with our money surely would have shown him the door long before now.The next election not soon enough but blaming Jason should start now!!!!
I agree 100% Paul. Kenney will do his best to avoid being held accountable but even his most fervent admirers must see that going on Fox News to slam Joe Biden is not the way to get Biden to reconsider. But then again, this is all for show. Either that or Kenney is even dumber than I thought.
***** (Five stars!)
Thanks Mike. I must say I’m enjoying your letters to the editor in the Globe and Mail. They show the rest of the country that we’re not all Kenney crackpots out here.
Hi Susan,
Joe Boivin here. we met through CALL and had you speak to us in 2017 on electricity markets. I was wondering if you’d be interested in participating in an online panel discussion on the (^^#@$% coal leases. Planning for March 2. Have arranged for Kevin van Tighem and am hoping to get a Dr Byrne from U of Lethbridge for the science. Can you drop me an email ASAP and let me know if this would work for you?
Joe, I’m glad you got in touch. I’m really looking forward to the CALL panel discussion on this extremely important issue. Take care!
Unfortunately our Premier is lacking foresight and leadership skills.
Keith: Agreed. Here we thought he was a savvy politician when it turned out he was riding on Harper’s coattails the whole time.
“oilsands have reduced carbon emissions intensity per barrel by 30%. True …”
But misleading, since their emissions intensity figures only include emissions at the mine site.
1)We are exporting more unrefined bitumen and less synthetic crude. This means that the emissions-intensive refining occurs in Texas.
2)The “per-barrel” is is for “dilbit” (bitumen diluted with 30% condensate), which lowers the claimed emissions compared to a barrel of bitumen.
Keith, thank you for this important clarification. I pulled the numbers from the Natural Resources Canada Energy Fact Book. It’s a handy guide but quite general in how it presents the pertinent information. Here’s the link if anyone is interested: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/energy-facts/20061
Hubris is right! He is speculating with tax payers money and because he a professional politician he think he knows how. I missed the phone call to Ottawa asking if anyone thought it was good idea to make the bet, now he wants Ottawa to pull his fingers out of the fire. I understand that TC share price rose after Biden signed the order. The only losers are Albertan taxpayers.
I agree David. The Globe and Mail carried an interesting article by former diplomatic counsel Laurence Herman who said given that the claim for compensation is a private-sector claim it is doubtful there’s anything in NAFTA that would allow the Canadian government to retaliate against the US.
While TC Energy could start its own case under NAFTA such cases take 5 or more years to reach a final conclusion and can result in a monetary award of significantly less than the investor claimed, for example a US company claimed $400 million when Nova Scotia pulled its quarry permit. It got $7 million. TC Energy would spend more than that on lawyers.
So when Kenney blathers on about pursuing his legal options, he’s blowing hot air.
Hi Susan, Kenny sends a billion or more out of the country with his untargeted corporate tax cut plus wastes the 1B on KXL, goes to war against labour. Doug Ford sits down with an automaker and the union and gets an electric car plant for Ontario Cheers John
John McWilliams QC
>
John, what an interesting point. I don’t know if Kenney has realized it yet, but when Doug Ford makes you look bad, you’re in big trouble.
The only winner here is TC. Not sure why they don’t have to return the money to Alberta since they won’t be completing the project. Why did Kenny think it was wise to make this investment during a pandemic and in the middle of a very contentious US election? Perhaps he should have read the fine print before signing on the dotted line. In typical Kenny form he refuses to take responsibility for his own abject failings. He is as bad as Trump for spreading lies and incorrect and down right wrong information. I don’t know how we can last till 2023.
Valerie, you raise a really important point about the investment agreement. I’m sure Kenney’s lawyers would have pointed out to him that if KXL was not completed, everything Kenney invested would be lost. Either he didn’t understand it or he decided to ignore it because this was his “I can build a pipeline too” moment. It’s pathetic really.
Great post Susan
Jason Kenney demands all the respect and all the democratic values and behaviours he is incapable of and does not even understand them. What a joke.
He is a master spinner and a master cheater but weakening by the day, at least I hope so.
With climate change already affecting us, he continues to push hard for everything except for all the industries within renewable energy and we are missing another 4 years that just like the 1.5 billion will be lost forever.
Carlos, as I’ve said elsewhere, the things Kenney said in his press conference were mind blowing. He said Canada’s emissions goals were more ambitious than Biden’s and Alberta is investing billions in the development of emissions reductions technology.
Not only is he wrong about Canada’s goals being better than Biden’s, but he glosses over the fact that Alberta is doing less than Canada to reduce emissions because it is not adequately addressing the issue of oilsands emissions, tailings ponds, water usage, etc.
At the press conference a reporter asked Kenney if he’d be willing to offer Biden a concession like dropping his law suit against the federal carbon tax or instituting an Alberta carbon tax. Kenney waffled his way through a long winded answer which was essentially “NO”.
Albertans get to notch this up as another gong show performance by their premier.
Susan I wish the Herald would print this.
Thanks Jo-Ann. I shudder to think what kind of comments the story would attract from the regular Herald readers.
Lots of us would be there to counter their responses. It would be a real bun fight 😜
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. The UCP seems to be like many Conservatives are behaving in Canada. It’s always someone else’s fault. We are now over $7 billion poorer because of the UCP’s bad gamble. It’s reminiscent of what the Alberta PCs did here.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/northwest-upgrader-another-boondoggle-for-alberta-taxpayers-says-u-of-c-professor
I think that 2023 cannot come fast enough for those of us in Alberta who are tired of the very big mistakes the UCP have been doing. Alberta is in a financial bind because of flawed Conservative ideology that ventured off the sound route Peter Lougheed was on.
https://theenergymix.com/2020/08/09/alberta-mismanages-heritage-fund-misses-out-on-575b-in-revenue-over-44-years/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/07/29/how-alberta-capitulated-to-big-oil-and-left-albertans-poorer.html
It’s not going to get better with the UCP.
https://kimsiever.ca/2020/11/26/ucp-budget-predicts-125-billion-debt-by-next-election/
Dwayne, thanks for all the links. I was particularly interested in the story quoting Ted Morton on the disastrous NorthWest upgrader investment. Morton was quoted in the Globe the other day saying these types of investments are motivated by politics, there’s often no independent, professional assessment of a project’s long-term economic viability and governments tend to be out-negotiated by more experienced counterparts in the private sector. As a result…wait for it…governments often bear most of the risk, provide most of the capital and receive little of the profits.
I’d say that sums up what happened here very nicely.
“Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called U.S. President Joe Biden’s move to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit a ‘gut punch,’ suggested around 2,000 people would lose their jobs as a result of the cancellation.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/biden-keystone-xl-permit-revoke-inauguration-1.5880268
So about 750,000 CAD invested per job (I assume those are all Canadian jobs, though I am almost certain they are not). And it is GONE! Not to mention whatever has been (is still being) sucked out of the 6 BILLION in loan guarantees.
Any CEO, manager, or leader worthy of respect would resign instantly, as would be (and is currently) expected by everyone else who they’ve left ultimately bearing the consequences of such an absolute failure.
But Mr. Kenney won’t go, oh no, not until he’s strip mined Alberta’s mountains bare and so poisoned the rest of the waters that wash over them onto the prairies.
Calgary Lougheed, recall your MLA today.
GoinFawr: having worked in the private sector for decades, including for pipeline companies, I can tell you CEOs have been ousted for much less than what Kenney pulled here.
I can’t wait to see Kenney’s first quarter report card, his famous “promise made/promise delivered” document. As far as I can tell he’s achieved an F in all his promises to deliver jobs, economy, and pipelines.
As your video clip said: he’s got to go, go, go!!!!
Jason Kenney is so worried about 2000 jobs that it seems to be more like less than 1000 but he has no problem to lay off 10000 himself in our Education and Health care systems
What a darn farce this all is and when is the end of this disgrace?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-jason-kenneys-war-of-words-verges-on-farce/
Carlos, when a conservative newspaper like the Globe (it endorsed Harper in the 2015 election) describes your policies as “pratfalls”, “self-inflicted wounds” and “embarrassing sideshows” you know you’ve got a problem.
I wonder if he is capable of understanding that
🙂 🙂 🙂
This is more like the FACTS world Jason Kenney lives in
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2021/01/kenney-appears-in-neck-brace-accusing-biden-of-pipeline-related-injuries/
I love The Beaverton!
I think Kenney’s bombastic response happened for two reasons.
First, to distract from his own poor decision of investing $1.5 billion in this pipeline, plus $6 billion in loan guarantees. If we are focusing on Trudeau or Biden we are not focusing Kenney. See the sleight of hand here?
Second, criticizing Trudeau plays to his base and he desperately needs to shore up their support. Even they are having doubts about Kenney these days.
We seem to be having a hard time getting a straight answer, or any answer for that matter, on how much Alberta lost on Kenney’s reckless gamble here. It was pretty clear, this was a huge risk given the political situation in the US and no the devil or Trudeau did not make Kenney do it.
I suspect all the bluster is mostly to keep the headlines form focusing on the loss on this investment and the bad decisions involved in it.
You got that so right
Jason Kenney is like Trump – he will only accept any responsibility or defeat or shame until the voters get him by the neck and kick him to the oil sands tailing ponds.
Dave, I agree. Kenney may think he’ll be able to slide away without giving straight answers the important questions around the financial obligations his government took on with respect to KXL but he’s forgotten that TC Energy is a publicly traded company. Securities laws require TC Energy to file documents which describe the material events of 2020, including the impact of Biden cancelling the KXL presidential permit. These documents will be filed in Feb and Mar. We’ll learn a lot more about this ill-fated venture in the coming months.
sorry I repeat that sentence
Jason Kenney is like Trump – he will not accept any responsibility or defeat or feel any shame until the voters get him by the neck and kick him to the oil sands tailing ponds.
More info
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/01/25/Coal-Disinformation-Kenney-Government/
Shame the guy to death
Read the article and tell me what do you think Nixon is after? I am sure is not protecting Alberta or the interests of Albertans
Carlos, in all the noise about KXL we can’t forget what the Kenney government is doing to the eastern slopes by revoking the Coal Policy. Thanks for reminding us.
Susan: So much for the UCP’s corporate tax cuts being a success. No jobs were ever created, as we see here. The lost revenue is close to $10 billion.
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/calgary/2021/1/26/1_5282448.html
Dwayne, remember when Kenney announced he was accelerating the corporate tax cut to 8% to show corporations the cut is real? He said the cut would create 55,000 new jobs in four years and corporations who didn’t move their operations to Alberta were being “irresponsible”. That was in June 2020.
The most recent ATB report on the change in head office employment across the country shows Alberta dropped by 12.9% between 2014 to 2019. Covid will make this even worse.
Kenney’s old conservative ideas are getting us nowhere.
Thanks for this excellent analysis Susan. Once again we see the UCP moving at the speed of business. Unfortunately for Albertans that business is Trump Casinos.
I was pleased to see that you pointed out the fallacy in the comparison of Trudeau’s response to the renegotiation of NAFTA and the response to the cancellation of KXL. When I heard Kenney say it live it sounded wrong and came across as a desperate attempt to deflect blame. The sad thing is that there will be some who will latch on to this feeble analogy and will repeat it endlessly in their efforts to discredit Trudeau at any cost. For these people it seems that critical thinking need not apply when making an argument to support their position, which is often based primarily on emotion or prior conditioning. Similar to the comment made above and your response, I don’t know what can be done to encourage people to think more deeply about their convictions and why they hold them but I think that is one of the greatest challenges we face. It’s very difficult to engage in a rational debate with someone whose position boils down to “I vote Conservative ’cause that’s what I do!”
Thanks Guy. As you said it’s very difficult to engage in a rational debate with someone whose is locked into voting Conservative. I think part of the problem is too many Albertans work in oil and natural gas and believe the Conservatives will save the industry without understanding (1) how dependent it is on the global market and (2) how vulnerable it is now that we’re beginning to understand the seriousness of climate change.
Last year the CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest fund manager, told all the companies in its portfolio to disclose their climate change risk. This year he went one step further and demanded they disclose their plan to get to “net zero” . This is huge because when Blackrock speaks other investment funds (and banks and insurers) listen.
Meanwhile, Kenney continues to preach that everything will turn out okay because he’s lowered corporate taxes, relaxed regulations and has unleashed the “war room” and the (non) public inquiry on anyone who gets in the way.
Anyone who thinks this is a winning strategy is delusional.
“Lawyers may argue about the meaning of ‘sole discretion’ …” I don’t mean to denigrate your profession, but IMHO only a lawyer could. To the rest of us, it means exact what it says.
Robert A Heinlein once wrote, “straining at gnats & swallowing camels is a required course in law school” (from The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress — if memory serves).
Excellent blog post, even if you are a lawyer lol.
Jerrymacgp you made me chuckle. How much do you want to bet lawyers insist on putting the word “sole” in front of the word “discretion” because some lawyer somewhere argued that someone improperly exercise their discretion because they talked it over with someone prior to exercising it. One of my first year law profs said lawyers can run law suits over anything including the colour of the Queen’s hat, but this didn’t mean they’ll win.
It will be interesting to see what TC Energy does, because I don’t think Kenney can go it alone. We’ll have a better idea of what remedies are available to TC Energy (and likely the Kenney government) when TC Energy files its securities filings in the spring.
PS I liked the Heinlein quote.
Wonderful synopsis of another greedy, power hungry inept politician.
Thanks David. I’d add the words “not too bright” and “pathetic leader” to your description of Kenney’s characteristics. I’ve come to the conclusion the only thing he’s good at is taking direction from Harper, big business, people who own car dealerships, etc.
Great article Kenney is irresponsible and the media needs to put extreme pressure on him.
The open pit coal mining in Alberta needs to stop, hopefully the Federal government can help. Kenney refuses to listen to Albertans about this issue. Kenney should either resign or call an election after losing 1.5 billion dollars of tax payers money.
Keep the pressure on.
We try Ken but the guy is like a turd that won’t flush
Thanks Ken. Kenney made a huge mistake when he quietly cancelled Lougheed’s Coal Policy This is an issue that cuts across party lines and the more Kenney tries to defend it, the worse it gets. Like you said, we have to keep the pressure on.
Carlos, it sounds like the frustration is getting to you. Deep breath!
Susan sometimes I have this feeling of being unable to take this anymore.
There is a limit for dishonesty and lack of respect in the world I was raised.
What we are witnessing is just way out of any decent citizens acceptance level. We are being showered with spin and propaganda to levels that should not be allowed by the rule of law. Democracy is not just voting and have a majority to embarrass and bully its own citizens.
Democracy grows on trust, dignity and respect. If this is what democracy means to us in this province we can kiss our future goodbye.
Who in the right mind in 2021 is opening up coal mines that will destroy watersheds and fields of grass where our ranchers have their herds?
I am sorry but this is not an ideology, this is out right criminal and if the system does not stop it because it is a joke, we have the responsibility as citizens to do it for the future of our children and grandchildren.
You are right I am basically done with this. These people are not just idiots, they need to be taken out whatever way possible.
Here is a question
What are in the civilized world (whatever that means) has an environment minister who is a poacher?
What area – I am sorry
Bombastic is a good word for him, but my impression was of a pre-schooler having an “It’s not fair” tantrum. Is there a word for that?
Yes Bombastic is the nice word for him – the joke continues day in day out
For those of you that read this post here is the joke of the day
https://albertapolitics.ca/2021/01/with-infectious-new-covid-19-strains-on-the-march-alberta-premier-caves-to-business-and-eases-health-restrictions/
This is the government that criticized the NDP government for being secretive and of course socialist. That word was part of the propaganda to repeat it so many times that becomes reality.
This is what they call a transparent and honest government
I would like to know how much the UCP is going to get under the table for this
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/01/29/Months-Before-Albertans-Told-Coal-Policy-Australian-Miners-Knew/
By the way do not feel bad that it is an Australian company because Canadian Gold miners are doing worse in other parts of the world including Peru where some people defending their lands were killed.
From my understanding, a notable move towards a renewable-energy industry economy has greater potential for both Canadian job creation and maintaining them than does oil. The latter’s definitely on its way out.
Meanwhile, it must be convenient for the oil industry to have such a large portion of society too tired and worried about feeding, housing and guarding their families against COVID-19 while on a substandard income to criticize it for the global environmental damage it causes, particularly when not immediately observable.
About two years ago, Canada’s supposedly environmentally concerned Liberal government, besides tripling the diluted bitumen flow westward, gave the fossil fuel sector 12-fold the subsidization they allocated towards renewable energy innovation.
Such heavily lopsided doling must not reoccur.