Alberta Campaign Roundup – Day 15

Campaign Roundup – Day 15:

We’re halfway through the election campaign now! If you’re enjoying our daily campaign roundups, please consider making a one-off donation or signing up as a supporter of the Alberta Institute for just $10 a month so that we can keep you updated.
Polls continue to swing back and forth, with new polling from Janet Brown showing the UCP ahead by 51% to 40% province-wide. Crucially, her poll also shows the UCP leading in the key battleground of Calgary by 51% to 39%.
The weekend’s hot, dry conditions brought more wildfires and more evacuation orders. There are now almost 20,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes. New evacuation orders were issued for Rainbow Lake, parts of Leduc County, and Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.
Rachel Notley clarified her position on “safe supply”, coming out in support of the programs that provide pharmaceutical replacements for opioids, but called claims that her party wants to provide hard drugs “utterly ridiculous”.
Rachel Notley made an announcement on her Twitter feed, promising to invest in the arts. The NDP, if elected, promised to provide 50% more funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, an Arts Capital Grants Program, and a Live Entertainment Advisory Council.
The NDP also held a press conference promising to eliminate the small business tax (from its current 2% rate). She also promised that, if elected, her party would not raise personal income taxes, nor would they go down the road of a PST.
The UCP held a press conference announcing new measures to deal with the mental health and addiction crisis. If re-elected, the UCP would draft and pass the Compassionate Intervention Act, which would allow a family member, doctor, psychologist, or police officer to petition a judge to issue a treatment order.
Danielle Smith said that providing more drugs to people is not a way to address public safety, nor is it a compassionate way to treat people suffering from addiction. Instead, she promised to build a series of five mental wellness centres, each with 75 beds, as well as add 700 new addiction beds at 11 existing treatment centres.
Brian Jean, UCP Candidate for Fort McMurray – Lac La Biche, reminded Albertans of the anti-energy positions of some NDP candidates. He also filmed a video about Danielle Smith’s strong opposition to Justin Trudeau’s anti-energy policies and Rachel Notley’s silence.

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Owner sells gas for 80 cents per litre to show Albertans how low prices ‘could’ be

Published on April 2, 2025

Duane Rolheiser

Undoubtedly some of the motorists driving past The Whistle Stop Cafe at Mirror on Tuesday morning thought it was an April Fools prank. It wasn’t.

Chris Scott, owner of the gas station at The Whistle Stop Cafe offered a one day promotion on April 1st. Scott sold 8000 litres of regular gasoline for $0.80/ litre.

The promotion was funded by Scott and the Alberta Prosperity Project. In this video posted to his social media, Chris Scott explains why they did it.

www.albertaprosperityproject.com

The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

Published on April 1, 2025

Todayville

From the Canadian Energy Centre

Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors

Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation

and Economic Corridors.

CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?

Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.

We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.

There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.

CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?

Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.

The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.

CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?

Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.

We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.

CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?

Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.

There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.

We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.