Smith put out a list of nine non-negotiable demands, concerning Alberta’s oil and gas sector, shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney
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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday that a list of energy-related demands put out by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was “very reasonable” but wouldn’t commit to meeting them all if he becomes prime minister.
“You’ll have to see the rest of our platform roll out in due course,” Poilievre told reporters, speaking at a campaign style announcement in suburban Ottawa.
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Smith put out a list of nine non-negotiable demands, concerning Alberta’s oil and gas sector, shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Edmonton on Thursday.
She warned that whoever becomes Canada’s prime minister after the imminent federal election must meet these demands within the first six months of his mandate or face an “unprecedented national unity crisis.”
“Albertans will no longer tolerate the way we’ve been treated by the federal Liberals over the past 10 years,” wrote Smith, throwing down the gauntlet to all federal leaders.
Poilievre has already said he’d meet some of the demands Smith enumerated, such as scrapping the federal cap on oil and gas emissions and ceding total control over industrial carbon pricing to the provinces.
Smith also demanded on Thursday that Ottawa end its “prohibition on single-use plastics” and abandon its zero-emission vehicle mandate.
The premier’s demands mirrored a wish list put forward by 14 of Canada’s leading oil and gas executives earlier this week, in an open letter to the leaders of the four major federal parties.
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Poilievre said that he interpreted Premier Smith’s ultimatum as a tactical gambit to force the new prime minister to show his true colours on fossil fuels.
”She was making clear that Mark Carney is using weasel words,” said Poilievre.
“He’s pretending that suddenly, 30 days before an election, changed his entire radical net zero, leave it in the ground ideology.”
Carney created some confusion during a Thursday appearance in Edmonton, when he seemed to suggest he was open to rethinking the federal oil and gas emissions cap, just hours after his environment minister told the media the cap would be staying in place.
Smith said Friday that Carney had told her in their private meeting that he wasn’t in favour of hard caps like the federal emissions cap.
The prime minister’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request to clarify Carney’s position on the emissions cap.
Poilievre said that economic self-interest could be driving Carney to keep the emissions cap and other anti-oil and gas policies in place.
“You know, maybe the reason why Mr. Carney is… supporting an energy cap, is because he wants to drive even more production to the United States, where his investments are,” said Poilievre.
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Poilievre said the only way for Carney to squash this sort of suspicion would be to disclose to Canadians his personal assets and potential conflicts of interest.
”That will be one of the things Canadians will have to decide on. Are you going to elect… a prime minister who puts his own financial interests ahead of Canada?”
National Post
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