Local news delivered daily to your email inbox. Subscribe for FREE to the rdnewsNOW newsletter.
(The Canadian Press)
Off to Ottawa

Kenney headed to Ottawa to push Trudeau for “fair deal for Alberta within Canada”

Dec 6, 2019 | 3:11 PM

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and eight cabinet ministers are travelling to Ottawa next week to push for federal co-operation to grow the economy.

Kenney says he will head into a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday and ask for $2.4 billion dollars in fiscal stabilization money going back to the start of the oil price collapse in 2014.

He says the federal government has not yet rejected the proposal and is open to discussing it.

“Albertans are proud Canadians. We are simply asking for a fair deal for Alberta within Canada,” Jenney said in a release. “Albertans have contributed over $600 billion in net transfers to the rest of Canada since 1960, including $200 billion in the last decade – even as our province has suffered its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

The premier says he’ll also press Trudeau for a fixed completion date on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to Burnaby, BC.

Meantime, the UCP government’s Fair Deal Panel is bringing its town hall tour to Red Deer.

The meeting on Monday, Dec. 9 goes at Westerner Park with doors opening at 6 p.m. and the meeting starting at 6:30 p.m. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP in advance.

Kenney created the Fair Deal Panel last month and tasked it to come up with recommendations on how to best advance Alberta’s economic interests within Confederation, including possibly creating its own police force and pulling the province out of the Canada Pension Plan.

RELATED: Kenney announces ‘Fair Deal Panel’ to advance Alberta’s interests

RELATED: Alberta’s ‘Fair Deal Panel’ begins feedback tour with Edmonton town hall