Government Operations committee  No, we won't participate in that system, because quite frankly we transfer enough money to Ottawa that then gets spent in equalization to Quebec, so we're not looking for another way of transferring dollars out of Alberta to Quebec. We are interested in finding ways of generating our own offsets through our investments in Dow chemical and petrochemical, which is net zero; Air Products hydrogen, which is net zero; and Heidelberg, which is net-zero cement.

Government Operations committee  We don't export thermal coal, as I understand it. I think it's mostly British Columbia that does that.

Government Operations committee  There is actually the ability under section 2 of article 6 for a subnational government to negotiate those kinds of partnerships. I can tell you how South Korea and Japan and India are looking at it. Since they do have a large coal fleet, they're looking at dual combustion. If we can apply either hydrogen or ammonia so it can be combusted at the same time, that will reduce the overall emissions profile.

Government Operations committee  It's a global market, and it's a global problem. We have to reduce global emissions. The way I look at it is that if we can live up to the spirit of what we signed on to in COP28, which recognizes natural gas as a vitally important transition fuel, then we'll be able to reduce the overall global emissions profile.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Yes. My very first conversation with the Prime Minister was to tell him we were aligning with the 2050 target, as our allies were, and that I would produce an emissions-reduction and energy-development plan, which I did last April. We've been working on a number of tables with respect to how we will work on achieving some of those interim steps.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. In one way, we've been inspired by Quebec, by your premier, in some of the policies he has established to establish guardrails around provincial jurisdiction. ln particular, one of the things we like to emulate is that if there is an area of federal encroachment using the spending power, we've observed that Quebec has particular success at being able to opt out and receive the full compensation.

Government Operations committee  We would certainly like for our full area of constitutional jurisdiction to be respected. I recognize that the federal government is responsible for the military, for international trade agreements, for international agreements, even like those signed at the COP meetings, for passports, for immigration and for currency.

Government Operations committee  It is. Let me give a recent example. I noticed that your premier asked to be able to choose 100% of the newcomers coming to his province through the provincial nominee program. I would like that same aspiration. We have been home to 57,000 evacuees from Ukraine. Many of them are using our provincial nominee program, and instead of increasing the number of provincial nominees we've asked for to 20,000, the federal government reduced them.

Government Operations committee  Well, I think we have our own program. If I understand the Quebec program, there are 172 industrial outfits that operate under their cap and trade system. I believe that actually ours is more expansive. I'm not sure of the total number, but we did have large emitters that were under the program.

Government Operations committee  There is a formula in the act that was insisted upon by Ontario, so that if Ontario ever wanted to get out of the Canada pension plan, there would be clear rules for how to do that. We applied that methodology and found that, every year, Albertans pay more in premiums than they get back in benefits.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. It was just the one time and we said yes immediately.

Government Operations committee  Mostly, it's been the various legal actions that we've had to take against the federal government. We've had a victory on the Impact Assessment Act, which you know as Bill C-69. We had a success initially on the declaration of plastics being toxic also being deemed to be unconstitutional, but I can tell you that my justice department is very busy.

Government Operations committee  After we had written our letter, we were approached on the same day, March 26, to appear before the committee.

Government Operations committee  We wrote a letter on March 26, asking to appear before the finance committee.