Alberta’s United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney made a stop in Lloydminster’s to headline the Heavy Oil Show. Ahead of his speech, Kenney discussed the importance of getting pipelines built to help Alberta’s economy.
He says the approval process and timeline for pipelines are “ridiculous” in the country.
“We’re sending a message that Canada can’t function as a modern country, which is why we estimate some $90 billion of capital has either pulled out of Canada or the investments have been cancelled in the past two years alone because of the uncertainty created by this.”
Addressing the Trans Mountian pipeline expansion, Kenney says there are a lot of different strategies that can be pursued at the same time to keep the expansion going.
“I’m calling on the federal government to impose sanctions on B.C. for standing in the way of that. They should appeal the Federal Court of Appeal decision with the Supreme Court of Canada immediately.”
Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs and Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Rosemarie Falk were also present at the oil show. Stubbs says Alberta’s energy industry makes major contributions to the country and the pipeline expansion is essential to those contributions.
“The issues around timeliness, competitiveness, certainty and predictability for approval process so that this crucial, multibillion-dollar long-term infrastructure can actually get built in Canada. That’s a priority focus for us, it will be in the fall.”
Kenney says he will continue to visit the Broder City ahead of the 2019Â Alberta election.
“[Lloydminster] has been really heavily hit in this downturn and we want a change of government to help get the economy in this part of Alberta back on track. I’m going to be here a lot in the next nine months doing everything I can to see that we elect a united conservative member of Alberta’s legislature in our election next spring.”
The oil show will run until Thursday at the Lloydminster Agriculture Exhibition.
