Madam Speaker, as the granddaughter of one of the notorious McCoy brothers who helped build the oil and gas sector in Alberta, as the daughter of a former trucker who worked in the oil patch making sure that my brothers and I had what we needed to thrive, as the sister of a heavy equipment cleaner and the wife of someone who is employed in the pipeline business, no one has to tell me how important oil and gas has been to Alberta.
I grew up with truckers and oilmen sitting around my kitchen table, and I am so proud of these hard-working Albertans who helped build our province and our nation. Generations of Albertans have enjoyed the prosperity that has come from this natural resource, and Alberta has thrived as a result. I am proud of the contributions Alberta has made to our country and the generations of Canadians who have also benefited from our oil and gas sector. However, the past is not the future and it is not even the present in Alberta right now. In Alberta, folks are losing their jobs and have been for years. It is devastating and I am completely gutted when I think of the Alberta families that are suffering.
Climate change is real. In fact, climate change is the most profound threat of our time and we cannot stick our head in the sand and pretend otherwise. As the world reckons with global climate change and turns away from fossil fuels to lower carbon forms of energy, Alberta is facing an economic calamity and instead of taking climate change seriously, instead of showing global investors that Alberta has a legitimate and robust climate strategy, a strategy that corporations like Cenovus, Shell and Total have called for, Jason Kenney and the Conservatives just keep yelling like spoiled children that it is not fair.
Alberta needs an economy that does not rely so heavily on one resource sector. Albertans have lived through boom and bust cycles for generations, and now we know once and for all that the next boom is not going to come. It is not going to come like it did the past. Even if oil and gas continue at 100% capacity, the jobs are not there. The sector is automating. When we hear catch phrases like “efficiencies”, it means there are fewer jobs for Alberta workers, fewer jobs for hard-working Albertans and their families, and everyone in this room knows that.
We have a choice to make. We can put on blinders and double down on the past, or we can work to ensure that Canadian workers have a future. Jason Kenney is doubling down on the past. He is betting on coal and putting the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains at risk. For a handful of short-term jobs, he is selling off our iconic Rocky Mountains to an Australian billionaire. He is risking the livelihoods of ranchers, farmers and tourism operators. He is risking the endangered species that people travel from around the world to see. He is risking the water, the very water that people in southern Alberta need to survive.
He is taking a gamble with Alberta resources, and I have to say as an Albertan who deeply loves my province, Mr. Kenney has a gambling problem and I am tired of his using Alberta taxpayer dollars to pay his bad gambling debts. He gambled somewhere between $1.5 billion and $6 billion of Alberta's money on Donald Trump. We do not know yet because he will not tell us, but remember that when Jason Kenney gambled on Donald Trump, he did not gamble his own money, but ours, and when he lost that gamble, when he lost that money, he did not lose his money, but ours. Let that sink in. The premier of Alberta gambled our money on the hopes that a racist, misogynistic, horrible human being would win the election in the United States of America. That was his job plan for Alberta. That was his plan to get jobs for workers in my province. Now he wants to start a trade war with the U.S., the customer for 95% of our energy exports.
Enough is enough. Alberta does not need a trade war with the United States. Alberta needs jobs now and a path to the future.
No one was surprised when President Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline expansion. In fact, anyone who thought differently was either lying to themselves or lying to Canadians. Biden told us he was going to cancel it. Biden was Obama's vice-president and Obama told us he was going to cancel it. Trump did not even get it built.
The reason Jason Kenney threw billions of taxpayer dollars at the project was that smart money, investor money, was not prepared to invest in it. Pumping more and more public money into dying projects that investors will no longer support is not the way to give Albertans a future. Helping Alberta to diversify our economy is the only way we can secure future prosperity, including refining and upgrading our products, investing in well reclamation, investing in hydrogen and other energy alternatives.
There are amazing opportunities available if we just have the imagination, intelligence and the courage to take advantage of them. Generations of Canadians have benefited from Albertans past, and it is time for Canadians to help Alberta create a new future. It is time for Trudeau and the Liberals to actually do something for Albertans. I have stood in this House—