2023 will be the year of Alberta.
We have already accomplished so much together. Through intentional deregulation, lowered business taxes, and the creation of targeted sector strategies and partnership streams, our government has diversified Alberta’s economy, ushered in the creation of over 200,000 jobs, and billions of dollars of fresh corporate activity. In fact, Alberta was responsible for 22% of the entire country’s total job creation this year which is quite astonishing for a province of only four million people. We are now leading the nation in GDP growth and job creation. We have also been recognized as the fastest growing green energy market in Canada and the fastest growing tech sector in all of North America. All of this in addition to realizing our best year of oil production on record! Even the rest of the country is starting to notice. In one single quarter this year, nearly 20,000 other Canadians saw opportunity in Alberta and chose to make this province their new home. Measured spending restraint and pro-energy policies during the early days of our government’s term put our province in a strong fiscal position that allowed us to invest more into healthcare and education than any government in history, advance the largest economy-growing infrastructure investment in history, and offer a targeted $2.8 billion affordability package for the families needing it most in the areas they need it most. Alberta’s future has truly never looked brighter. We need to keep it that way. That is why, in addition to all this, our government also passed the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. From the cancellation of our pipelines and vital economic corridors, to senseless and irresponsible standards placed on our agriculture producers during a global food shortage, to the direct taxation of our primary industries, to the confiscation of our legally purchased private property, the federal government has been actively working against Albertans for too long. Their overreach has extended so far that we are now no longer even permitted to build provincial highways beyond a certain length without their permission!
For Alberta to realize its full potential and continue growing our economy, we must start standing up to Ottawa. The Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is our way of doing that. Section 91 of the Canadian Constitution is abundantly clear: provinces have “exclusive” authority to make laws pertaining to the exploration and development of non-renewable natural resources, the export of non-renewable natural resources, the taxation of non- renewable natural resources, property rights, the administration of justice, and direct taxation. The federal government has no constitutional jurisdiction over these areas.
Going forward, our provincial government will no longer accept or enforce federal directives that we know contravene our country’s order and harm the people of our province. If the Trudeau Liberals wish to take actions that undermine the livelihoods of Albertan people, businesses, and industry, they’ll have to do it themselves. It’s as simple as that. Alberta won’t do it.
The Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is absolutely not about pursuing separation from Canada. Rather, it is about strengthening the bonds of confederation and upholding our nation’s most foundational documents: the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so that our entire country can function the way it was always intended to. Saskatchewan has already put forward similar legislation with full support from their NDP opposition colleagues, and Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Yukon have all initiated other measures to stand their constitutional ground. There is countrywide agreeance that when provinces are treated and respected as equal partners in confederation, our entire country will be strengthened and unified.
Alberta has already been able to defend the vitality of our farmers and agriculture producers by working with Saskatchewan and Ontario to successfully stop the federal government’s 30% fertilizer reduction mandate. Jointly with three other provinces, we have also protected the property rights of law-abiding citizens by restricting RCMP resources from enforcing the federal government’s gun confiscation scheme, and by restricting the future prosecutions of this scheme to the provincial courts.
Much can be accomplished when provinces collaborate together to guard their constitutional rights and economic interests.
As we embark into 2023, Alberta does so from a position of economic strength as the fastest growing economy in the country and the most diversified we have ever been. The entrepreneurial, self-determinant Albertan spirit desires nothing more than to live life free from government overreach and to give back to our neighbours. Through pro-business policies, low taxation, reduced regulation, and deliberate government initiative to defend our province’s interests, our Albertan way of life will continue to live on.
We have accomplished so much these past three years with your help and support, but I know that our province’s best days are still on the horizon.
2023 will be Alberta’s year. It’s the year of Alberta.
