Thread by @Mitchell_AB

Back for a Q&A from Kenney at the #UCPAGM2020
Q: masks don’t work can you and Dr. Hinshaw make a statement against Dr. Tams recommendations?

Jk: I’ve been critical of Dr.Tam when she gave bad advice, most of which came from WHO.

Jk: China restricted travel within China but encouraged travel out of the country. We don’t have a mask mandate here in the province.

Q: is there anything we can do to combat the federal anti-pipeline regulations?

Jk: TC Energy would like to invest and reduce the gas glut in AB. The province made recommendation and The federal govt has been sitting on it. They need pipelines. We’ve been approving in less than a year provincially. Longer pipelines needed, but under federal jurisdiction

Jk: it could take 2-3 even four years to get approval, we’re trying to bring it back to provincial jurisdiction

Q: rural doctors seem upset

Jk: Doctors spent a lot of time with education and training and they deserve to be compensated fairly. We pay the best

JK: our deficit has bloomed and we have had a huge collapse of revenues we have to better manager spending one of the single largest parts is physician compensation at 5.4 billion. Most unions have had zeros in their collective agreements but doctors have been seeing increases

Jk: of 6%/year on average. I think that has turned into misinformed attacks on the government policy, when it comes to rural physicians we have unique challenges but it’s not exclusive to Alberta.

Our rural physicians are best compensated and I hope they acknowledge and stay

Q: efficiencies

JK: we can’t cut $24 billion. Our biggest expense is healthcare and we’re in a pandemic. The only way out is growth. It is going to take time, there will be many more difficult months ahead for this province. But we’re sending a message w/ recovery plan policies

JK: at the same time we must operate more efficiently. We had a credible plan to get us back to balance by 2023. Shandro announced savings of $600 million by contracting out services, Minister Toews will come up with more soon.

Need deficit to manageable level. Growth first

Q #yyccc is passing an anti-free speech law disallowing protests outside of schools

JK: we want to protect free speech. Take it to Council.

Q: how can we combat Trudeau’s agenda.

JK: we need a fair deal, and to maximize our alliances across the country. We’ve done that.

JK: we have support against the Trudeau carbon tax, all 13 provinces and territories support us to lift the fiscal stabilization cap, we will have the referendum in October to hold over Ottawa.

JK: The fight for fairness isn’t just about shouting at Ottawa every day

JK: the feds own TMX. We have to fight to make sure the pipeline is completed, fight when the green left pops up to protest construction.

JK: provincial police force, referendum, we cannot stop equalization but we can start a pension plan

Q: Alaska railway

JK: great concept but they need $23 billion and they’re not even half the way there. In KXL, we knew there was political risk but it wouldn’t have gotten done without us. I thought it was critical to hedge AB access against foreign funded interests

JK: we’re making inroads with Biden’s camp, we’re working with the Govt of Canada, we appointed a new representative to Washington, it may be one thing to make a commitment during primaries, if they’re not reliant on Cdn crude they have to rely on Venezuela.

Q: we were promised a big tent party but it doesn’t seem like we have that.

Jk: I think we’re a big tent party. I think we see that being demonstrated in the debates here today and I think we’ve done very well. The merger has been a huge success.

JK: I believe we’ve done a very good job. Maybe it’s a good reminder to our party advocates that we maintain a big party structure. I said during unity that we should stay focused on what unites us.

Q: You supported her and O’Toole who came out and said he supports Paris accord

Q: did you know beforehand as it’s against AB interests.

Jk: Harper supported the Paris accord too. We have to aspire to do better and Alberta is doing so much better we’ve seen a 30% reduction in omissions per barrel; our companies are the best performers on enviro and social

Jk: I don’t think Erin is wrong. Our pitch to investors in the future will be surrounding our environmental record. We need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time when it comes to the oil and environment dynamic. Erin asked for a national pipelines act 3 yrs ago.

Jk: I know Erin supports Albert is industry.

Q: negative media

JK: let’s be honest this is always a challenge there’s always going to be criticism, there’s a lot of bias against conservative governments in particular. The left-wing anger machine on Twitter all the time

JK: it’s best to just ignore them. We can do a better job presenting our case; our government has already initiated 68% of the 372 specific commitments that we made in our platform. Mostly within the greatest health crisis in a century.

JK: we’ve been acting with speed and we need to do better at communicating that.

Oh and Erin O’Toole is here. It was a surprise.

ET: there’s so much potential here in Alberta

JK: how you feeling? You had the COVID.

ET: great, cant give or get it for four months

ET: Your government has done a great job in the pandemic. Even though we don’t have the 15 minute tests

JK: we need your help to get federal approval for those.

ET: until Rempel was asking about it, feds hadn’t even ordered any.

Jk: we had a Q about Paris Accord

ET: we need to support our resource companies, our companies are actually leaders and if they replace our barrels with another, where’s it coming from? Most countries don’t care about carbon intensity and social responsibility.

JK: pipelines, potential US admin change

ET: we need to educate the Americans about energy independence, other actors don’t have the same standards we have environmental, rule of law; America should work with us for energy and security independence.

JK: western alienation

ET: Bill C-69 shows Trudeau’s not listening. We need everyone working and we need every cylinder firing.

JK: I’ve never gotten a call from Ottawa asking how we can work together. How will you defeat Trudeau?

ET: we need to work on that speck of orange in Edmonton, but we need to win in my area (Ontario).

Q: getting debt under control, why wouldn’t we look at moving elective procedures

JK: Canada Health ACT but need to ensure medically necessary procedures are funded

JK: foreign funded interests, We get criticized about the war room, but $10 million is just reallocated advertising funding, and $20 million comes from industry. Look at the website, see what they are researching, it will help us advocate against financial inst who stopped fundin

Jk: go back to plan A, advertising campaigns to promote benefit of employment etc

Q: indigenous support for pipelines

JK: we don’t have legal authority to require reporting from Band councils. Indian Act is a terrible Act but we don’t have authority to create transparency law

JK: some will agree some not that’s democracy, but I think support is growing. We invited FN Chiefs after our election and most are supportive with responsible development. We need to listen to elected leaders. Also, I think only 6 nations along the route oppose TMX now.

JK: Our government should not seek to interfere with the decision making abilities of individual FN communities.

Q: opioid crisis. What methods to attract engage and motivate people with substance abuse issues to seek treatment

JK: we’ve lost more people to overdoses than COVID so it’s arguably a greater crisis. We’ve added 4000 treatment spaces, and working on two treatment communities; detox wasn’t working, more treatment needed. More needs to be don’t by feds to stop the introduction toxic drugs

JK: many made in China, holistic approach, need to stop them from coming into the country, increase enforcement.

Kenney says he’ll do an FB live later in the week. And it’s break time.

If you appreciate these threads, the up to date info without having to sit through it, consider signing up for a patreon subscription at patreon.com/PoliticalRnD