Alberta cabinet ministers are fanning out to promote energy and hunting in the U.S.
Alberta is continuing its one-province charm offensive. Meanwhile, it’s unveiling an ‘automatic yes toolkit’ for permit approvals — and is still endlessly promoting hunting
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had been busy trying to appease the U.S. government prior to tariffs being imposed in Canada, from visiting President Donald Trump at his resort, to attending inauguration parties. The charm offensive hasn't worked.
There is the before time and the unpredictable future. Not to mention the present, in which there’s not a single political, economic or social debate — or singing of the U.S. national anthem at sports games — in Canada that isn’t being sucked into a chaotic American vortex.
On Saturday, as promised, U.S. President Donald Trump introduced tariffs on Canada, and then abruptly delayed them for 30 days (or maybe forever, or maybe not, or something) after chatting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday.
Despite Alberta Premier Danielle Smith undertaking a bit of unsanctioned diplomacy by travelling to Mar-a-Lago to hob-nob with Trump prior to his inauguration, oil and gas was also hit, albeit at a lower 10 per cent — not a great return on a ring kiss.
The move follows weeks of Alberta cabinet ministers meeting with U.S. politicians, including Smith travelling to the presidential inauguration to work the ballrooms in a show of public dissent with the Canadian government over how to confront the southern threat.
In the wake of Saturday’s announcement, Canadians seem to be finding their inner hockey goon — booing the Star-Spangled Banner at hockey and basketball games and howling into the void on social media. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced counter-tariffs on everything from booze to vegetables with more to come. Time to plant that garden and dust off that still.
Whether Canada meets the moment and maintains pledges to unify and refocus on internal and international trade remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if Trump actually goes through with any of it.
Smith, not surprisingly, has used the opportunity to call for more support for the province’s energy industry and to build more pipelines to ports for new (hopefully) international customers — a slight detour from her government’s recent sales blitz on Alberta’s potential to secure North American energy dominance.
That’s the new reality. Here’s a snapshot of what’s led up to it last week and what might be coming in the weeks ahead.
A hope and quite a few prayers
As the country and the province come to terms with the impacts of potential tariffs by the United States, Alberta will continue to try and woo politicians south of the border and, apparently, seek some spiritual consolation.
Three ministers will travel to Washington D.C. this week for the National Prayer Breakfast, where they will speak and meet with members of Congress.
The entourage includes Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf, Health Minister Adriana Lagrange and Dan Williams, minister of mental health and addiction.
Neudorf will also visit with “energy and electricity” leaders before heading home, while Lagrange will pop by the think tank Milken Institute (an economic think tank), Georgetown University and the MITRE Corporation (a “systems engineering” non-profit).
Nathan Neudorf, the minister of affordability and utilities, is part of a contingent in the U.S. this week to take part in the National Prayer Breakfast. The government has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to stave off tariffs on oil and gas. Photo: Government of Alberta / Flickr
The charm offensive won’t stop there. MLAs Shane Getson and Justin Wright are at bat to mingle with state legislators in Oregon as part of Pacific NorthWest Economic Region meetings “to promote the valuable role Alberta can play in supporting North American energy dominance,” as well as trade and border security. Although that whole energy dominance bit was planned prior to the tariff announcement.
Speaking of border security, just in case the president isn’t getting the message that Alberta really, really wants to make sure he’s happy, Mike Ellis, the minister of public safety and emergency services, toured around a Fox News crew to show what Alberta has been up to.
In a press release, Ellis thanked the feds for sending a Black Hawk helicopter to patrol the border, then immediately said it wasn’t enough.
“We are also calling on the federal government to immediately appoint a Canadian border czar to work with the new American border czar to jointly crack down on fentanyl and illegal migrants,” Ellis wrote, just in case the president or anyone else was still not sure if Alberta really, really wants to make sure they’re happy down there.
I wonder whether said news crew asked about members of the governing party attending the blockade that illegally shut down that very crossing in 2022. Awwwwwwkwaaaaard.
Environment minister talks Alberta oil and gas, parks minister talks hunting
Rebecca Schulz, the minister of environment and protected areas, is once again travelling to talk about, let’s see here, just have to check my notes … energy.
“The world needs the most responsible, reliable and secure energy possible, and that comes from Alberta,” the environment minister said in a release. “Japan’s energy needs are growing, and our province has the resources, innovation and reliability needed to help Japan grow its economy while creating jobs and new investment opportunities here at home.”
Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen has been travelling to the U.S., and now Europe, to promote hunting in Alberta. A recent auction of a licence to hunt bighorn sheep sold for a record US$400,000. Photo: Mike Graeme / The Narwhal
Meanwhile, Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, who has been travelling the U.S. trying to convince folks to bid on the chance to hunt animals in Alberta, is taking his pitch to Germany. He’ll attend the JAGD & HUND show and meet with “international outdoor enthusiasts” and “European wildlife management agencies.”
If anyone knows how to clear a place of wildlife, it’s the Europeans.
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We’re covering energy on the Prairies
A less conspiratorial view is that southern Alberta is dry and getting dryer and it’s critical to understand water supply and how to satisfy growing demand.
Water has been strained in southern Alberta due to the impacts of a multi-year drought. The province is funding a new groundwater mapping initiative, but is also pushing for water-hungry coal mines in the Rockies. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal
To that end, the province is providing $3.8 million to the Alberta Geological Survey to map groundwater in the south of the province over the next three years. In an announcement, the government noted mapping was done from the 1960s to the 1980s, but “was not designed specifically to support the allocation of groundwater resources.”
It seems like a good time to remind readers the government is pushing to open the eastern slopes of the Rockies — also known as the source of all water in most of Alberta by some radical water-sipping urban elites — to water-hungry coal mining.
Probably just a bit more of that conspiratorial thinking. After all, it was announced by the environment minister.
The answer is yes, but pinky promise not to make a mess
If there’s one thing Alberta is known for, it’s strict regulatory control and oversight. Just ask the folks in Fort Chipewyan.
Alberta faces a huge oil and gas liability issue, with problem wells spread across the province. The government is trying to streamline permit approvals across industries. Photo: Theresa Tayler / The Narwhal
The government says this will mostly apply to “low-risk activities that pose minimal harm to the environment and public health and safety,” and there are routine applications that could probably use a bureaucratic break. But what the government and regulators consider low-risk can be fairly, uh, broad.
The government also goes on to say, much lower down in that news release, that “the automatic yes toolkit will only be applied to permits categorized as high-risk activities if all assurances can still be met.”
So, you know, rest assured. At least the initiative wasn’t announced by the environment minister.
Updated Feb. 3, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. MT: This story was updated to include the news, made public after publication, that Donald Trump had backed away from immediate tariffs.
Another year of keeping a close watch
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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