Premier Jason Kenney is taking questions on Facebook Live. He says if we continue to see relatively low hospitalizations and fatalities from COVID-19, we could begin a "safe, gradual reopening of the Alberta economy" by mid May. #covid19AB
Kenney says officials at AHS and Alberta laboratories began ordering additional supplies in December when there were rumours of a virus out of Wuhan. #COVID19AB
"That's what put Alberta in a position to lead the world in per capita testing," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"Clearly, a part of our relaunch strategy will be erecting a wall of defence" around those most susceptible to the virus, Kenney says. He also says regions not as affected by the virus may reopen more quickly, "perhaps potentially Edmonton before Calgary." #COVID19ab
"I don't expect us to be much behind Saskatchewan" in reopening, Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"You'll probably see Saskatchewan moving faster than Alberta ..." but Alberta will likely move faster than Ontario and Quebec, Kenney says. "We'll be in a position to reopen earlier than them." #COVID19AB
Kenney asked why Stampede was cancelled when the province might begin reopening next month. He was sad to see it cancelled, but "I do not see any realistic scenario where we would be able to open up events where 100s of thousands of people are congregated together." #covid19AB
Deleted a previous Tweet because I missed a few words, fuller quote: ""There will be nowhere in the world where events of that scale will be happening this summer," Kenney says. #covid19AB
Kenney is asked as to how we can see a return on the Keystone XL pipeline. "There will be a global recovery, demand will return," Kenney says. He expects prices to recover to WTI north of $50 a barrel with a return in demand and a reduction in worldwide supply. #COVID19AB
"I'm not prepared to say there's no future for the largest industry in our province and in our country," Kenney says. #covid19AB
He says Alberta will be back to the "painful situation" the province was in before the pandemic with no Keystone XL: no way to export oil from the province. #covid19AB
They installed pipe across the Montana/Saskatchewan border in Keystone XL last week, Kenney says. #COVID19AB
He says Keystone will ship 830K barrels of Alberta oil and will increase government revenues by $30B. #COVID19AB
Rewinding back to make sure I heard that correctly: That's barrels per day. He doesn't specify whether that increase in revenue is per year, though. #COVID19AB
Q: Will the Heritage Fund be used during the pandemic? "We are keeping our options open," Kenney says. "When Peter Lougheed started the Heritage Fund back in 1976 the idea was it was there as a rainy day fund. Well, it's never rained harder." #COVID19AB
"We are prepared to use all of the tools at our disposal to protect Albertans from the impact of the terrible economic storm that we are just beginning to experience," says Kenney. #COVID19AB
"There is no way of sugar coating this. This is a triple threat that is going to be very, very difficult for Albertans. That is why we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to get people through this," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"We cannot save every business... As we look at our economic recovery plan, realizing that there is not enough fiscal power in the government of Alberta to insulate everybody from the economic adversity that we will be going through," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
Kenney says the deficit is likely to hit $20B. #COVID19AB
"I'm concerned we will not have adequate fiscal power to insulate everybody from what is coming at us," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
Kenney says one of the first phases of the relaunch strategy will be rescheduling non-elective surgeries. #COVID19AB
(Note I had to run and answer the door, so I am behind the live stream.)
Q: Why suspend camping if it's a good way to social distance, get out of the city? Kenney says people were stealing sanitization supplies, the parks were overwhelmed, and they couldn't cope with the volume of people that wanted to get out of the cities. #COVID19AB
He says he hopes they can reopen provincial parks and camping sites in the first phase of the relaunch "or perhaps even earlier," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
Q about golf courses. "The golfers have made a pretty strong case that golfing, with some minor adjustments, can be done in a way that respects public health measures," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"It's been hard for @CMOH_Alberta to validate golfing as an essential service," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
He says health minister Tyler Shandro and rural MLAs have been in conversation about how to address the unique situations of rural doctors and the costs of delivering care in rural communities. #COVID19AB
He says Shandro will have an update tomorrow on that situation. #COVID19AB
Q about Middle East oil being sold in Alberta. "I can happily assure you that there is zero Middle East oil sold here," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
He says he's been in conversation with North American leaders about a "coordinated tariff on foreign oil imports." #COVID19AB
He's spoken to the U.S. secretary of energy, 10 members of the U.S. senate, "many members of U.S. congress, several governors." He says Minister Sonya Savage has been talking to the Texas railroad commission. #COVID19AB
He says it's a discussion of "what I call a continental energy policy to stop or inhibit OPEC imports into North America." #COVID19AB
He says there will be a news conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. with Minister Savage about orphan well cleanup. #COVID19AB
Q about restaurants/pubs. He says he's so sorry for the people in the restaurant, hospitality and tourism industries, "that have been probably more affected than any segment of the economy by this whole situation." #COVID19AB
Kenney encourages Albertans to patronize restaurants anyway you can. #COVID19AB
"We do hope in the second phase of our relaunch, we can begin reopening restaurants for sitdown service as long as they have social distancing protocols," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"I think it's going to be difficult for us. I do not think that Dr. Hinshaw will recommend allowing bars, for example, to reopen fully until the last phase of the relaunch because obviously that's where you're going to get a lot of people in very close quarters," Kenney says.
Kenney says they're providing as much support as they can: deferring property taxes, WCB premiums, federal government wage subsidy. "There's a great deal of support out there," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
Q about meat-packing plants staying open. Kenney calls them an essential part of food security. #COVID19AB
Shutting them all down "would have a devastating impact on food security," and that they can keep them open with enhanced safety measures, Kenney says. #COVID19AB
He says the Cargill outbreak was not all transmitted at the plant. He says that it was also through carpooling, and people bringing it in from other work places. #COVID19AB
He says they'll be releasing data next week "that will show the pattern of some of the transmission that occurred." #covid19AB
He says, for example, transmission came from a prayer meeting weeks ago, from a long-term care worker, from the spouse of a long-term care worker. #covid19AB
"It is not correct, as Dr. Hinshaw has pointed out, to identify the operation of a food-processing plant as being uniquely vulnerable to transmission when there are many more complex public health factors at play here," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
"Better testing and more tracking are essential elements to our relaunch strategy," Kenney says. He hopes to increase testing to 7,000 daily tests and eventually "a stretch goal of 20,000 tests a day." #COVID19AB
Tracing and tracking "will involve the intelligent and limited use of technology like smart phone apps on a volunteer basis," Kenney says. #COVID19AB
Final Q: about weddings. "Weddings can proceed as long as there are less than 15 people attending and they observe the public health orders," Kenney says. #covid19AB
