Make no mistake Alberta is winning...
Pipelines, AI data centres, investment and more.
Premier Danielle Smith was smiling big time when I spoke to her Thursday afternoon. I’m not sure she could have smiled any more, and I’m not sure I could have said anything to make her lose that smile.
And why not?
Smith was taking a day off from attending Stampede events non-stop and from a series of announcements.
A pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney to take oil to the Pacific
A feasibility study with Ontario Premier Doug Ford for an all-new Canadian pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to Sarnia, Ontario
A massive $13-billion investment from Meta to build an AI data centre and power plant in Sturgeon County
You can read my column on Smith’s winning week here. Our full interview is below.
More winning for Alberta…
The other day there was quite a bit of buzz about how investors from the UAE were walking away from their promise to deliver $70 billion worth of investment in Canada.
The buzz started after the Financial Times of London published a piece with a headline that read, “Canada tells UAE it is not ready for its C$70bn investment.”
That’s quite the headline, and it would seem to imply we cost ourselves a lot of potential foreign investment. The problem is, few Canadians have a subscription to this publication, and few were willing to pay $99 a month to buy one.
As I explained in my column for the Sun earlier this week, it’s just not true. I spoke with Jean Charest, the former Quebec premier and co-chair of the Canada-UAE Business Council, who was in all the meetings that mattered.
While it’s true that the Major Projects Office Carney established said they had no projects ready, the Emiratis are still looking to invest, and a lot of what they want to invest in is found in Alberta.
“There’s a number of projects in other areas: energy projects in Alberta, strategic minerals,” Charest said.
I later confirmed all of this with Premier Smith’s chief of staff, Rob Anderson.
Again, more winning for Alberta.
Carney taking the world as it is, well, except for Trump and the US…
Speaking to reporters after his trip to Saudi Arabia, where he was trying to drum up more foreign investment, Mark Carney completely rebuked Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy.
“Lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective,” Carney said.
I quite like that.
Trudeau used to lecture every other country in the same annoying way he lectured Canadians. It caused us problems with Saudi Arabia, India, China, and more.
So Carney walking away from that is good.
As I explain in my Sun column on this, though, Carney can’t seem to do that when it comes to the United States.
His Davos speech, his snide comments, and his attempt to organize against Trump with European leaders — as the Wall Street Journal has been reporting — none of it helps us get a better trade deal, which is what we want and need.
Have you heard about the KPMG study showing four in ten manufacturers in Canada are looking at moving their production stateside?
It’s troubling, and I’ll have more to say on that in the coming days.
Danielle Smith is doing a much better job than Mark Carney in attracting investment into the country. My fear is that many of these projects will never see the light of day as so many special interest groups are immediately up in arms. Likely many of the same people that like their government benefits. When will Canadians realize the money has to come from somewhere? And when will government stop kowtowing to these people and get stuff done???
"“Lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective,” Carney said."
Translation - "Lecturing Muslim and Arab countries may cost me votes and does literally nothing, so I'll let them continue - but make no mistake - I'll keep telling at Israel and putting Jew haters in positions of power over Jewish safety" - mark carney