Dreeshen, Calkins discuss pipelines, agriculture and trade at Chamber breakfast

“I was in Malaysia a little over a year ago and I was talking to major investors and they were saying that there’s no way that they could get anybody to invest in Alberta,” Dreeshen shared. “These were Albertans that were working for international fundraising companies, and so that was the problem that we had is this uncertainty. If you want to have programs for your people, if you want to have hospitals, if you want to have schools, if you want to have social programs, you have to have industry, so you can’t chase them away.”

If elected government in October, Dreeshen says the federal Conservatives would try to remove barriers to trade for Canadian businesses, including inter-provincial trade.

“We’re trying to have trade agreements to go to other parts of the globe and yet when they want to deal with Canada as a whole, they find these regulatory burdens that they have to work through,” he explains. “It affects investment opportunities, which means it affects job opportunities in the various provinces. It’s a protectionist position that the various provinces have done to say we want to help out this particular industry and so on but we just haven’t got governments yet prepared to make those changes.”

Red Deer-Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins says he looks forward to working together with UCP MLAs on the common interests of Albertans and Canadians, including getting market access for Alberta’s oil and gas products.

“Getting our energy sector back on its feet, it’s what fuels not only a good portion of the Alberta economy, but of course the national economy as well,” he explains. “We can’t balance a budget in Alberta, we can’t balance a budget in Ottawa. It makes no sense to be shutting down one of the most lucrative sectors that we have in the Canadian economy.”

Dreeshen says outgoing premier Rachel Notley was late to the party with her efforts to get the Trans Mountain Pipeline built.

“It was a conversion in the last year or so when she realized that every other opportunity that we had to move our oil and gas had been nixed by the federal government,” says Dreeshen. “When she chooses to have people on review boards, people that are known anti-oil and gas advocates, I think people saw through that. She was saying the right things when she was going to Ottawa in this last little while but quite frankly, the investors, they didn’t see that and the people of Alberta decided perhaps one could say too little, too late.”

Calkins says he’s also focusing on the agricultural sector, including market access for Canadian canola.

“Particularly with our trade exposure to places like India and China that have restricted access on canola and lentils and wheat and barley,” he notes. “When you only make a couple dollars a bushel on canola and the price of canola goes down a dollar, you’re basically losing half your revenue, that’s how serious it is.

“We know that it’s directly linked to the handling of international relations because none of the other places that we ship canola to have had any qualms at all with any of the quality or the so-called pests that China alleges.”

Calkins says a new report on rural crime is also expected in the coming weeks, in addition to a vote on his private member’s bill (C-406) on ensuring foreign money doesn’t find its way into election advertising in Canada.

“It closes a loophole that would allow a foreign-funded interest to work against the interests of a fair election,” he explains. “Whether it’s coming from a business or a corporate source or whether it’s coming from a foundation, that money should not be coming in. People outside of Canada are not allowed to donate to political parties, why are businesses and special interest groups outside of Canada allowed to fund third-party organizations for election advertising, it doesn’t make any sense.”

by Sheldon Spackman

Dreeshen, Calkins discuss pipelines, agriculture and trade at Chamber breakfast

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