For Alberta’s recently sworn-in Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean, a resident of the epicentre of the province’s energy sector, Fort McMurray, the impact of his new portfolio hits close to home.
“I’ve lived in the highs and the lows of the oilsands,” Mr. Jean told The Epoch Times, his voice cracking as he talked about the impact of government policies on families.
“What these politicians forget [is that] these are real people. These are real families. When you make decisions, you better think about it.”
Mr. Jean was one of the first cabinet ministers to receive a mandate letter from Premier Danielle Smith following her United Conservative Party’s re-election on May 29. The letter, issued on July 10, outlines a number of priorities to “promote and grow” the province’s energy sector.
True to Ms. Smith’s standing-up-for-Alberta brand, topping the list of priorities is fighting jurisdictional overreach. “In cooperation with the Minister of Intergovernmental Relations, defending Alberta’s energy interests against federal overreach and developing strategic alliances with other provinces to deal with energy-related issues,” her letter says.
Mr. Jean, a former federal Conservative MP and leader of the Wildrose Party, says he plans on building relationships with federal ministers but will “put them back in their lane” if there is overreach.
“The difficulty we have is that courts continuously sided with the Liberals … when it comes down to a close situation of constitutional issues. But the Alberta government is a partner in the Confederation. It is not a junior partner—it is an equal partner to the federal government,” he said.
The UCP government has been a vocal critic of Ottawa’s “Just Transition” legislation aimed at transitioning workers in the oil and gas sector to other industries. And it has opposed other federal legislation it deems as impeding energy project developments, such as the Impact Assessment Act, also known as Bill C-69.
Among the other priorities in Mr. Jean’s mandate letter are supporting and investing in technology development to reduce emissions, facilitating industry and provincial partnerships with indigenous communities on energy projects, supporting the “carbon neutrality by 2050” goal, and promoting investment in other sources of energy such as hydrogen, geothermal, and small modular reactors.
Markets
Mr. Jean says the demand for energy internationally is at high levels, which means he doesn’t have to do much to promote Alberta’s supply, but he acknowledges there are barriers to getting the products to international markets, such as the lack of cross-jurisdictional pipelines.“Alberta produces the most sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy on Earth while being environmentally conscious,” he says.
“If we had the opportunity to build more, sure, ship it overseas. But we’re restricted because of the federal government’s decisions, so all we can do is do as much as we can. And if they’re not going to allow us to ship our our products overseas, then we’re going to use the products here in Alberta.”
This could mean working to attract more businesses and industries to the province so they can create more value-added products for export, he says.
“If we can’t get energy out, we’re going to use the energy here. We have some of the cheapest feedstock in the world,” Mr. Jean said.
“If you’re paying a third of the price of other jurisdictions, then why do we need to ship it overseas? Let’s set up the operations here, whether it’s Dow Chemical, whether it’s one of the other multinational conglomerates looking to have the opportunity to take the natural gas products.”
Still, he says, he’ll be looking into options to get the province’s energy products to tidewater.
Earlier in her tenure as premier, Ms. Smith promoted the idea of using the Port of Churchill in Manitoba to get more of Alberta’s energy products out to international markets, as the province continues to have to sell its oil at a discount to the U.S. West Texas Intermediate benchmark. The idea was supported by Saskatchewan but didn’t get much priority from Manitoba at the time Ms. Smith brought it up last October.
Mr. Jean says it should be recognized that there is no “silver bullet” to solving the issue for the province, but a host of items should be pursued.
“What we have to do is look at every single option. Port of Churchill, that is an option. Kitimat [in B.C.], that is an option. The Arctic Ocean, that is an option. All of these options take time, take money, take expertise. We need to investigate and look at every opportunity available to us,” he said.
There have been a number of setbacks in recent years on building pipelines to get the province’s oil and gas products out to broader markets. This includes the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project in 2021, the Energy East pipeline in 2017, and the Northern Gateway pipeline after the federal government introduced legislation in 2015 banning oil tankers from B.C.’s north coast.
Advocacy
Mr. Jean says he believes that, compared to years past, the “rhetoric” against Alberta’s energy sector is dying down.“When you open up your power bill and you say to yourself, ‘I’m paying $700 for my house for electricity,’ I think people think about things a little differently,” he says.
He has already met with the Canadian Energy Centre, known informally as the “Energy War Room,” he says, and has some ideas of his own about how to “counter lies about our energy sector.”
The centre, set up by former premier Jason Kenney after he won the 2019 election, is tasked with promoting Alberta’s energy industry and opposing “domestic and foreign-funded campaigns against Canada’s oil and gas industry.”
Mr. Jean says he only recently received his mandate letter so needs more time to develop his approach on the file, but stresses that the province must address the issue with the right approach.
“We need to do so in a way that Albertans expect us to do that, and that doesn’t mean we have to pick a fight with everybody. What we have to do instead is convince them through truce, that we have the best, most ethical energy in the world, and we’re not going to apologize for it.”
