Marking the one year anniversary of the United We Roll convoy from Red Deer to Ottawa, oil and gas supporters rolled out again on Saturday for a trip around central Alberta (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

hitting the road

United We Roll convoy heads out from North Red Deer

Feb 15, 2020 | 11:31 AM

The United We Roll convoy rolled out Saturday morning from a local business in north Red Deer.

Founder Glen Carritt, who is also a town councillor in Innisfail, led the way for about 30 vehicles en route to Sylvan Lake, Eckville, Innisfail and back into Red Deer to make their final destination of the Quality Inn at about 1:30 p.m.

Carritt spoke with rdnewsNOW on Friday, and reiterated his message on Saturday that they are committed to peaceful protest.

“We keep getting these illegal protests with anti-oil activists, and those have got stop,” he said. “We’re not blocking traffic, or ports or anything like that, and we want people to know we’re going to continue to fight for oil and gas, and continue to fight for the farmers.”

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Asked about a lack of progress on pipelines, Carritt lays the blame squarely on the Canadian government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Until that changes, until we get someone pro-oil and gas, nothing’s going to change. He continues to stifle our oil and gas industry with red tape,” said Carritt. “We look at the Teck Frontier mine, and there should be no question that goes through. They’re already looking at giving us handouts, (but) we don’t want handouts. This is a big deal for Alberta. It would show Alberta is open for business.”

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Government of Canada is preparing an aid package for Alberta to ease the pain of potentially blocking the Teck project.

Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon later said that no such deal would be accepted by the province, adding that Albertans do not want a handout.

Nixon also said that the province has not been approached by Ottawa for a deal.