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Alberta

Enserva key to unlocking Canadian energy: CEO Gurpreet Lail

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Photo for the Canadian Energy Centre by Dave Chidley

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Cody Ciona

“We are in the quality of life business, and that’s exactly what our business provides.”

A lawyer by education, with terms in high profile roles as executive director of STARS Air Ambulance and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Calgary, Gurpreet Lail is no stranger to working in organizations dedicated to helping everyday Canadians.  

Now two years into her term as the president and CEO of Enserva , formerly known as the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, Lail’s work continues to focus on improving quality of life. 

She has no qualms about stating her support for the work the energy industry is doing. 

“I will be the first one to say stop apologizing for the work we do, because the work that we do actually, no pun intended, fuels Canadians. We are in the quality of life business, and that’s exactly what our business provides.” 

Enserva represents the service, supply and manufacturing sectors of the Canadian energy industry. This includes companies that supply hydraulic fracturing services to equipment suppliers and oilfield construction. 

As the energy industry innovates towards more sustainable, low emissions products, she is confident that Enserva’s membership is more than up for the challenge. 

“We are all moving to a new energy mix, and we all realize that as an industry we’re going to need new forms of energy to help us meet the demands of the future, especially when we look at global demand,” Lail says. 

“Every company we represent has been diversifying their business to make sure we have a cleaner future. A lot of our companies are bringing in technology and artificial intelligence processes that are going to help streamline energy well into the future. 

Photo for the Canadian Energy Centre by Dave Chidley

Enserva members are unlocking Canadian energy to make the world a better place, she says.  

“They bring their services, they bring their supplies, they bring their manufacturing, globally.” 

This includes technology used by drilling companies to replace their diesel fleets with natural gas power and other alternative energy sources, which reduces emissions while drilling wells. 

“They just want to do good work, they want to make sure we can provide for Canadians, and they want to provide back into the community with community investments,” Lail says. 

 “You cannot go into rural Alberta or rural Canada and not see energy companies putting up community rinks or helping local hospitals or making sure your local Tim Hortons is still in business.” 

Indigenous reconciliation is an ongoing process, and in Canada, where the oil and gas industry employs thousands of Indigenous workers across the country, she says working with those communities is crucial. 

“It’s a good thing to do and it’s the right thing to do, and a lot of other industries aren’t quite thinking that way.” 

In her eight years at STARS, Lail helped grow the organization to span three provinces and was a leading driver working with Enserva on the annual STARS & Spurs Gala. The event has raised over $20 million, 29 years and counting. 

“STARS has become a fabric of our businesses; it helps save lives including those of our members, and we’re proud of that.” 

In the ever-changing dynamic of Canada’s oil and gas industry, more women are finding themselves, like Lail, driving the conversation about Canadian energy. 

“If there’s young women out there, or women in general I would always tell them to get involved and don’t shy away from coming into the sector,” she says. 

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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