 Ah, listen to that. The silence falls over the crowd. Good evening, bonsoir, tout le monde. Ça va bien? I'm Benoît Antoine Bakon, president of Carleton University. It's my great, great pleasure to welcome you to our annual Dick, Ruth, and Judy Bell lecture with a very special welcome to our distinguished guest, Rachel Notley. How exciting is that? Very exciting. I'd like to start by acknowledging that the land on which we gather today is the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin nation. I'm so glad that we're holding the Bell lecture this year in this wonderful downtown venue, the Carleton Dominion Chalmers Center, when we've already held about 800 events since we opened about a year ago. What a great addition to Carleton University. Talks like the one that we're about to enjoy tonight both enrich our academic mission and contribute to the greater good in our community. I'd like to very much thank the Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs, André Pleur, Associate Dean Mary Francoley, and indeed the whole Faculty of Public Affairs team for bringing us together tonight. And of course, I want to sincerely thank the Bell family for making this outstanding lecture series possible. Every year, thanks to their vision and generosity, we can hear directly from outstanding individuals who've shaped political and public life in Canada. Previous speakers include Senator Kim Pate, that was last year, the Honorable Jean Charrette Chantaliba, National Chief Phil Fontaine, Beverly McLaughlin, and the right Honorable Joe Clark. What an incredible advantage for Carleton to have our truly unique and truly distinctive Faculty of Public Affairs to fully leverage our strategic location in Ottawa. And tonight's a perfect example. Serving the Ottawa community and through our Ottawa connection serving the world, our core values at Carleton, our various public affairs program, of course, prepare our students for rewarding and impactful careers in the public sector, our faculty conduct research and scholarship that inform policy decisions and also provide training and advice to elected officials and other decision makers through programs like our unique initiative for diplomatic and parliamentary engagement. And of course, we're always looking to enhance our partnerships with Ottawa stakeholders. This ranges from embassy, to government, to community organizations, to media, to tech firms like QNX and Erickson. Carleton's a big place, 32,000 students today. An impactful institution in a city that matters, the National Capital Ottawa. And as we renew our strategic plan this year, the future is bright for Carleton. So once again, merci. Thank you, everyone, for being with us tonight. Je vous souhaite une excellente soirée. And now, to introduce our guest of honor, I'd like to welcome to the stage our colleague, Mary Frank Coley, Director of the Arthur Krueger College and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Public Affairs. Mary. Okay, thank you so much, Benoit. So good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. It's a real honor for me to introduce this year's Dick Ruth and Judy Bell Lecture, Rachel Notley. So Rachel has led the Alberta's New Democratic Party and represented Alberta and Edmonton Strathcona since 2008. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Alberta and a law degree from Osgood Law School. In her early career, she worked for a number of labor unions in both Alberta and British Columbia and she served as an advisor to British Columbia's Attorney General in the 1990s. Her work during her legal career has focused on labor law, workers' compensation advocacy, and workplace health and safety issues. In 2015, she defeated the Progressive Conservatives who had been in power in Alberta since the early 70s and was sworn in as Alberta's 17th Premier. I was in Alberta during this time visiting my dad who was in the hospital and I remember watching the outcome and he said, isn't that something which doesn't seem like much but from him that was a lot. That was that things are gonna change, things are going to be different. And during her four year term as Alberta's Premier, Miss Notley expanded healthcare and child services. She enacted a climate change strategy, raised Alberta's minimum wage and overhauled labor laws, froze tuition fees for post-secondary students, apologized to Indigenous persons of Alberta for the government's historic neglect and much more. So my dad was right with the, isn't that something things really did change, things happened in Alberta. So I'm so honored tonight to have Rachel Notley here with us. So please join me in welcoming Rachel Notley to the stage. Well, thank you everybody for that warm welcome and hello and good evening to everyone. Before I go any further, I'd like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded Algonquin and Anishinaabek territory. And thank you Benoit Antoine and to Mary for that kind and wonderful introduction. I'm so pleased to be with all of you here tonight on the most holy of holidays, Super Tuesday. As a progressive, I've been watching the primaries very closely. I'm glad the field of candidates is finally starting to narrow. We're losing candidates of both genders now, women and mayors. So yes, diversity does remain a little bit of an issue. But I will say, no matter who is ultimately successful, I do want to see the current president of the United States gone and defeated if only so those of us in the NDP can finally reclaim the color orange. I have to say, I quite like the color and I've grown very tired of having to share it. So it is, as I said, a true honor to be here with all of you this evening. While it's not my alma mater, Carlton is world-renowned for its higher instruction, educating the next generation of leaders and innovators contributing to Canada and to the world. And I also know, in particular, that your reputation for producing some of the best journalists in the world is well earned and something that we need a lot of in Canada right now. And in fact, some of my toughest interviews have been with Carlton graduates. So thanks so much for that. So this lecture series is a true gift from the Bell family and so many speakers have already taken the stage, including women I quite admire, such as the Honourable Kim Campbell, Justice Beverly McLaughlin and so many others. I also note that I'm the first new Democrat politician to be invited to speak under, I believe, since Roy Romano in 2001. So hopefully I can live up to his example. Roy spoke beautifully about our challenges with healthcare at the time and its future in Canada and his work to improve the healthcare system for all Canadians certainly deserves and deserved recognition and the honour that this lecture bestows. After all, I do note that the main purpose of this lecture series is to, quote, honour the contributions of individuals to the political and public life of Canada. So me being here, is there something someone needs to tell me? Is there something I don't know? Because here's the thing, I have to say I'm not actually done. Serving the people of Alberta. I do intend to run again for Premier in 2023 because, you know, quite honestly, we have major challenges. Today in Canada, there is much to be said on the topic of national unity or to put it another way, just how angry is Alberta today? Well, as you know, we're at the point where a few members of parliament are penning screeds, promoting separation just last week, Alberta's current Premier put a survey online asking all Albertans whether separation is a path that he should pursue. And somehow we seem to think that's normal. To be clear, it is not. Not even close. And it's unbelievable that we have elected MPs pushing this disastrous plan to take Alberta out of Canada. I would argue just for political gain, especially Western Conservatives. It makes you wonder, how did the West wants in become the West wants out? Well, I'll say much of this discussion and this tension revolves around the perceived incompatibility between our oil economy and our country's need to take climate change seriously. It's also steeped in political divisions, in regional differences, in regulatory uncertainty and complex issues like indigenous sovereignty and reconciliation. And of course in the very future of our nation. And the decisions that we make today will define what Canada is and what it will be for generations to come. And I can tell you, for anyone that's in a position to actually do something, these decisions are never easy. It takes hard work and determination. Sometimes from the hectic place that is a Premier's office, I could back in the day only wring my hands and string expletives together. Something I did quite well. But often when I saw real collaboration, real conversation, real solutions, it was some of the most important and gratifying work I was able to lead on behalf of the people of Alberta. And that's why I've called my lecture tonight an evening with Rachel Notley. No. Whoops. Actually it was funny, you know, that is just a placeholder. And I thought, well, if I don't change that people might think that they're coming to a variety show and that they'd see some singing, dancing, a few jokes. But no, I was still actually writing this yesterday and in fact even on the plane. So it's been of a work, a bit of a work in progress. And the real title is, I'll tell you what it is. And Mary, you'll be very glad that you were never told what the real title is because you couldn't fit it on any of your flyers. The perfect storm simultaneously addressing the goals of supporting Alberta's oil and gas industry and combating climate change in an age of economic slowdown, political polarization and indigenous reconciliation. So I'd like you to say that three times really fast. Now this may sound like a long and complicated title and it is, but it's a long and it's a complicated subject so settled in. Honestly, it won't, I'll let you go after a certain point in time, I promise. But, and I don't actually profess to come here with a solution to this almost existential challenge. Rather, I just seek to offer some insight on several aspects of it from the perspective of Alberta and from the perspective of a progressive politician and from the perspective of someone who truly believes that Alberta is at its strongest inside Canada and that Canada is at its strongest with Alberta inside it. Now these are challenging times. In the last month we've seen blockades thrown up across the nation jeopardizing our economic prosperity while also demonstrating that we have some very serious unfinished business to attend to as it relates to the indigenous people of this country. We've seen what could have been the biggest new industrial project in the country put on ice because of a failure to establish a predictable framework within which to reconcile sustainable energy development with the unquestionable need to tackle climate change and reduce our emissions. We've seen growing East West divisions within our country as the structural economic change in Alberta creates very real fears of persistent unemployment alongside a predictable growth in anger. And we've seen an unprecedented level of what I would characterize as cynical political gamesmanship where short-term political wins are elevated over the value of long-term solutions so that the other challenges I just listed are accelerated and amplified as a result. So to be perfectly honest, finding a way to focus my discussion today hasn't actually been easy, hence the ridiculous name of said discussion and it will take some time. However, as I say, I'd like to offer just a bit of insight on how each of these realities relates specifically to my province of Alberta. So to do this, there's a few things I'm gonna chat about. First, I wanna talk a bit about the history of my government and in particular about our work to establish Alberta's climate leadership plan while simultaneously fighting for the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion to the West Coast. And I'll offer you my oh so objective, not really, assessment of the missteps taken by my successor, the current Premier of Alberta. And I will share the perspective of many Albertans when it comes to our economy, our environment and our role within Canada. And finally, I'll conclude by offering just a few observations about what the best path forward might start to look like because in the last few weeks, if they've demonstrated anything, we know we need a path forward. And so we all need to start thinking about what that will look like. Now I sometimes ask myself, how did we get here? It's a difficult question, there's no easy answer. But I think the situation we find ourselves in now comes down to differences, both real and perceived that are threatening the future of Canada. Because friends, there is a perceived conflict between the economy and the environment. And there is a desire to pit East against West founded upon, at the very least, a failure to understand multiple regional perspectives and more likely some missteps when it comes to responding to the economic challenges currently facing Western Canada. And there is the spectacle of these disputes being used to either abandon or to exploit the very long and complicated road ahead towards meaningful reconciliation with Canada's indigenous peoples. In my view, all of these choices lead to a dead end path where Canadians from coast to coast to coast are left behind. So these were some things, not only now, but in the past that I thought about. And in fact, many of them I was thinking about in the lead up to the 2015 Alberta election that Mary described. Now in 2015, Alberta was a very different place. I was in a very different place. I had just become the leader of a four person NDP caucus, four. Our party had always been small, we thought, but mighty. We were a thorn in the side of the very tired old boys club conservatives who were nonetheless far more preoccupied with fighting, I kid you not, an even farther right conservative party. More broadly speaking, we were at the end of another wasted boom and on the cusp of yet another bust. And while the conservatives were playing game of thrones in the back rooms, the oil and gas industry was facing extreme headwinds. It was much different than the 2008 crash, which was largely linked to the global economic crisis. This time it was the shale gas revolution in the US which sharply drove up supply of cheap light crude. At the same time, Canada could not get a single new pipeline to the coast and our single biggest customer became our single biggest competitor overnight. Price of oil was in free fall and we weren't ready. Even as we headed into an election, a full year before the fixed election date, Albertans were not quite aware and quite frankly, neither were we really. Just how much pain this was gonna cause and how many jobs were gonna be lost. And there we were, that was Alberta at the end of another boom. And the conservatives had the same idea for dealing with it that they always did. One wanted cuts, the other wanted bigger cuts. They want to make ordinary people pay for the bad times and pray for the good times. Standard modus operandi in Alberta. So our little crew of four ran a campaign based on NDP ideas rooted in prairie pragmatism and in looking out for working people. We told people that when time started to look tough, we had to actually have each other's backs. We committed to protecting healthcare, education and other important frontline services. We said that those who could afford it should pay just a little bit more. We promised to get rid of the outdated flat tax and we promised to raise corporate taxes, both designed to stabilize revenue somewhat in the face of an expected decline in royalty revenue. And we talked about creating jobs by promoting more value add from our resources that we all owned and by working to diversify our economy finally. And here's a bigger thing. We committed to developing a meaningful, evidence-based plan to combat climate change. Now these positive ideas were embraced by Albertans and on May 5th, we found ourselves as Albertans' first ever NDP government. But I'll tell ya, almost starting the next day, it wasn't easy. You know, oil prices had been projected to drop to roughly $55 a barrel. Instead, by January 2016, the price of oil had bottomed out to $26 a barrel. In a budget of just over $40 billion, we lost $6 billion of revenue in less than a year. Not a fun place to be as a first-term government with a caucus consisting of 50 brand new MLAs. One of whom was actually with us in the audience tonight. Give a little wave, Michael, over there. Worse yet, jobs began to disappear throughout the province. By June of 2016, 100,000 Albertans had lost their jobs in one year. So in the face of all that, here's some things we did. And I apologize now. I hope you'll indulge me just a little bit here and consider this your contribution to my post-election loss therapy. Allow me to relive a bit of history by describing some of our initiatives, ending with what I believe is probably still most critical to the place we find ourselves in today. We put into action a plan to grow the economy and protect the environment and build our province in a way that put people first. Exactly the kind of plan you would expect from new Democrats. We started building again, putting Albertans to work building new schools, roads and hospitals. We finally focused on new industries, like artificial intelligence and technology, equipping those industries with targeted tax credits to bolster growth and attract new investment. And we embarked on a multi-billion dollar energy diversification and upgrading initiative, the biggest since the days of Peter Lawheat, to take control of our energy future at home in Alberta. Now that alone, that one initiative saw the successful attraction of over $10 billion in private sector investment. And overall, this economic plan helped create 80,000 jobs when we badly needed them. And we pushed Alberta to the point where we were once again leading the country in GDP growth in both 2017 and 2018. Not only did we create jobs and grow the economy, we didn't stop caring for people in the process. We froze tuition and we properly funded our universities, as Mary mentioned, and our colleges to make higher education more affordable and more accessible and higher quality. We raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour. We fully funded enrollment of kids in our schools. We approved, funded and commenced the construction of 240 schools across the province. We committed over $100 million to bring clean drinking waters to Alberta indigenous communities. We banned payday loan rates. We capped our car insurance and our electricity rates. We built long-term care capacity and funded 62,000 affordable housing spaces. We created 25,000 affordable childcare spaces and funded a school lunch program across the province. We hiked and then legislatively indexed income support programs for low income Albertans, including seniors and people with disabilities. And we put Alberta on the path to reconciliation, acknowledging our role in residential schools and the 60s scoop. And we resolved a treaty with the Lubicon Lake Band, a land dispute that had lasted 85 years and attracted the attention of the United Nations itself. We created more parks and protected more areas than four years from the conservatives did in 40. And one of the most important accomplishments of all, in the face of a seemingly relentless set of economic challenges, we cut child poverty in half, taking 40,000 children out of poverty. And let me just digress for a moment. Don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done because you can do things like that if you make them a priority. Now at the center of all that was this little thing called the climate leadership plan. You may have heard of it. Before Ottawa did anything, it was Alberta that was leading the continent on climate action. We had, like BC, an economy-wide price on carbon, but ours was reinvested in our communities. We had a commitment to end all coal pollution in Alberta by 2030 and generate 30% of our electricity from wind and solar. And to put the significance of that in context, remember 60% of the coal burden in Canada was coming from Alberta at the time. We brought in Alberta's first ever energy efficiency plan helping people save money and energy. We brought in a stringent plan for cutting methane emissions, a first for Alberta. And we placed a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions from our oil sands, a hard cap, an actual legislated ceiling for emissions that would hold us to account and keep driving our energy industry to be better. The result was a sea change for the province. We were suddenly a market hotspot for renewable energy investment in the continent. We helped our northern most First Nations stop relying solely on burning diesel and start Canada's largest off-grid solar farm and storage facility. We started agreements to co-manage the largest swath of protected boreal forest in Canada. And we not only built those schools as I mentioned before, but we put solar panels on the roofs of many. And we started national dialogue, and this is big, about pipelines that was actually about more than screaming and yelling and demanding access to the coast, but rather about how hundreds of thousands of Canadians in every part of the country rely on our energy industry to pay the mortgage, raise their kids and put something away for retirement. We talked Canadian to Canadian about our energy economy, about our actions on climate change, about the Canada we could build if we tackle these challenges the way Canadians do by working together. And it was successful. We moved the dial considerably. We saw support for that pipeline move from four in 10 Canadians to almost seven in 10. Now, sure, we did have to threaten at one point to stop drinking John Horgan's wine for a couple months at great personal cost. I must add. But overall, we succeeded in starting a conversation where people were hearing each other for the first time, where it wasn't just noise, where we were able to start finding common ground because I'll let you in on a little secret. The climate leadership plan wasn't cooked up by a bunch of new Democrats camping in the Rockies. We did the work. Instead of speaking in the echo chamber, we went into rooms with environmental activists, with labour organisers, with economists, with Indigenous people, and with the CEOs of some of the largest energy companies in the world. Now, you might imagine it was sort of like negotiating a ceasefire, but the fact is, everyone knew that the current or the current at the time atmosphere of hostility and heated rhetoric was unsustainable. They knew there was no way the status quo would ever lead to better jobs for Canadians today or a better environment for our kids tomorrow. Now, the truth is, is that some of that work was already underway long before there was an orange wave and wild rose country. These were smart, talented, passionate, and dedicated Canadians who could see around the same kind of corners that we're driving into today. However, I think it's fair to say that our election accelerated their work just a bit. And the package of proposals that we ultimately introduced included ideas like the cap on emissions that actually weren't the dreams of environmentalists, but the practical solutions put forward by industry. Because just like today, energy producers know that we need a clear, predictable, reasonable, climate framework for the long term. And at the same time, the environmentalists, at least at that time in that room, knew that forever screaming no at every project would never get us to something better. And that what we needed was yes, if. Yes to energy growth and new minds, if we are cutting emissions and reclaiming habitat. Yes to oil and gas jobs, if First Nations are part of the benefit and their people see jobs. Yes to multi-billion dollar investments, if you are properly reducing the impact and the risk of climate change. Because that is what is driving global investment now and capital X managers. So that's what we provided. And no, the work didn't end there because we also did a lot to keep the Trans Mountain Pipeline alive, pushing the federal government to buy it when regulatory uncertainty jeopardized its continuation. But just as Alberta was recovering, I'm sort of thinking about 2018 here, we hit a wall. In August of 2018, the Federal Court of Appeal told the federal government, both the liberals and the Harper conservatives just to be clear that they'd failed to address indigenous concerns around TMX adequately. And construction on that pipeline stopped. And just a few weeks later, we ran out of takeaway capacity in Alberta. We were producing 325,000 barrels per day that we couldn't move. And instead we were rolling them into storage. We had so much supply that Alberta companies were producing oil at a loss. And the differential, what Albertans, the difference between Albertans got for their oil and what was happening on the world stage exploded. When world prices were $50 per barrel, Albertans were selling at 10. We were forced to intervene in the private sector in a way unimaginable just a few years ago. We brought on limits on oil production and we started buying rail cars. Now all of this happened in the fall of 2018, a time when Albertans suddenly started to realize that the recovery that had been underway for the previous two years was slowing and once again at risk. And in the middle of all this, politicians in Quebec were saying no pipelines despite getting their oil from other countries. Politicians in BC were saying no pipelines even as they made massive expansions in their LNG sector. Politicians in Ottawa were saying yes to pipelines but also no to oil tankers on the West Coast even as no similar limitations existed on the East Coast. Albertans looked around and they wondered who exactly is on their side. The sense of betrayal and worry and anger was palpable. Enter Jason Kenney. Jason Kenney convinced Albertans that if they let him fight the Prime Minister that the oil boom would come back and people were scared, nervous about their jobs and the future of their families. So they chose Mr. Kenney to do just that. And I stand here today as the leader of the opposition. Now I accept that. They chose him and they wanted to believe him and they took him at his words. He made big promises. But here's the thing. It wasn't real, it was politics. And now Albertans are starting to see the truth and the difference is stark. The first thing he did was give big corporations a $4.7 billion handout and then lose 50,000 more full-time jobs. The GDP growth estimates for Alberta this year have been cut in half. Major cuts to healthcare and education, hikes to school fees, car insurance, tuition fees, electricity bills, prescription drugs, personal income taxes, you name it. Costs to Albertans that far exceed any savings they might have possibly seen through the elimination of the carbon tax. He actually canceled economic diversification programs that were working. And of course, going back to where I started, undertook a complete repeal of the climate leadership plan because they don't believe in him. Because apparently everyone else is an urban green left zealot. Including people like former Bank of Canada governor, Mark Carney, international capital market managers, J.P. Morgan, the Pope. You know, all the usual suspects. And so it played out exactly like you think. Because Mr. Kenny sacrificed a stable, predictable climate framework in favor of political fight with Ottawa and his own poll numbers, he cost Canada a $20 billion energy project. A project being advanced by a Canadian company that supports a carbon price, that supports a cap on emissions and that believes in fighting climate change. So by facing away from action on climate change, we are not only failing the environment, we are losing out on the economic opportunities that benefit all Canadians. All of this combined has put Alberta back in free fall. So yeah, Albertans are angry. And Mr. Kenny is doubling down on his strategy of using that anger to fuel his political vehicle, to distract from the failure I just described and deepen the divide. He says our energy industry is under attack, so we started a war room to fight the activists and environmentalists and Greenpeace and so on. He says the attack is funded by shadow organizations outside of Canada, so he's launched a public inquiry to find and stop the money. He says Ottawa is to blame, so he will start looking into creating his own pension plan and his own police force. He knows Albertans are upset, so he sends some surveys on the matter of separation. Now, none of these ideas are realistic or even workable. His war room is best known for stealing logos and attacking the journalistic integrity of the New York Times. The head of his public inquiry turned around and spent millions to hire his own son's law firm and has so far, as far as we can tell, interviewed just one person. And perhaps my favorite, a growing number of Albertans are showing up to these pre-separation fair deal panels to tell Jason Kenny to leave their pensions alone. Regardless, though, there are still people who are convinced that this kind of leadership will exact some kind of revenge on Ottawa. It is the political weaponization of this anger that is driving people into black and white thinking, that if you're not with us, you're against us, that kind of thinking. So that's the thing, but, but, you might be thinking that this is gonna carry on and be nothing more than my own polemic about my political opponent, I mean it is or just has been quite a bit. But here's where I wanna talk a little bit about my province and maybe I might even start to sound just a little bit like Jason Kenny. Because, listen, this division is also being driven by Ottawa and when I say Ottawa, no, I'm not suddenly attacking the Trudeau Liberals. No, no, no, no. The problem goes back as far as anyone can remember. Ottawa doesn't favor the West and even when we send a prime minister from Calgary into Parliament, they still fail to get it right. Stephen Harper broke the environmental assessment process so badly, it drove further division, I don't know more, Northern Gateway. That was eight years ago, but more accurately, that was also last week. It's still broken. On one hand, for years, Alberta's prosperity drove and supported the Canadian economy. Canada's energy sector contributes significantly. In 2017, capital spending by Alberta's resource sector accounted for 20% of private sector capital spending in Canada overall and that was after the price of oil tanked. Of all the provinces, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia are the only ones that are net fiscal contributors to the Federation. On a per capita basis, folks in Saskatchewan contribute $323 every year to our country more than what they get back in federal services. In BC, it's $1,162. Here in Ontario, it's an average of $1,179 per person and for that, we all thank you. But in Alberta, every woman, man, and child contributes an average of $5,147 to our country. That's five times more per person. All in, Alberta contributes $22 billion per year more to Ottawa than we receive in return even after the effects of the oil downturn and the recession. Now, to be clear, this has nothing to do with equalization. We pay more in income and corporate tax, so our numbers are higher. That's how it works. But the point is, is that we are getting tired of trying to remind the rest of Canada that they need us and that they need to work with us instead of in spite of us. And in Alberta, there is a very real feeling that outside of Ontario and Quebec, the rest of Canada doesn't seem to matter and doesn't have a say. And while Jason Kenny's promise to rewrite the constitutional principle of equalization is empty and unrealistic, the call from Alberta that spans both my government in the past and the current cabinet government with respect to the fiscal stabilization formula must be heard. Because of the current cap, a cap that I will remind you remained unchanged under the Harper government as well as the current government, Alberta's crisis level loss of $6 billion of revenue in one year was stabilized by Ottawa to the tune of only $250 million or 1 24th of the actual loss. Clearly, that formula is utterly disconnected from the Alberta economic experience and it needs to be fixed. But on the positive side, let me tell you a little bit more about my problems. Albertans are nation builders. We're problem solvers. We're friends and partners and neighbors. We're entrepreneurial. We have the youngest and hardest working by measure of hours per day population in Canada. We have a little bit of that Bob the Builder can do attitude and despite what people might think, we care deeply about the environment and the land we all live on. More than 10,000 people came to the Alberta legislature a couple months ago. Not to hear Jason Kenyon, not even to hear me, but to hear Greta Thunberg. And I'm constantly proud of my province and hopeful for our future. Even in our frustration, Albertans understand that we mean more together than we do apart. We are in confederation. Canada is stronger with Alberta, but we need your help. We are dealing with a fundamental restructuring of our primary industry in the context of fighting climate change. And these things are changing really quickly. We're trying to find a way forward after price collapse that so hundreds of thousands of people put out of work. And we are trying to do so while everyone from Ottawa to Edmonton to the whole world urges us to take climate change seriously. Newsflash, we do. Maybe not Jason Kenny, but generally speaking, most Albertans do. And the solutions though have to be real because it won't happen overnight. To the Canadians who say we need to just keep it in the ground, we understand the urgency, but it's just not that simple. We know this is the most fundamental challenge humanity has ever faced. We agree that we cannot continue to pollute our air as we have for the last century. And we know we need to take action and we need to take action now. But there are hundreds of thousands of people working today, not just in Alberta, but across this country contributing to our economy, creating jobs across the country, paying taxes, and advancing the prosperity that all of us enjoy as Canadians from coast to coast to coast. And when you talk about shutting down the energy sector in service of this issue, you are scaring and in fact, insulting hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work hard to build Canada each and every day. And who also care about the environment. And when you say this, you polarize the support and jeopardize the efforts we have to make as a country to combat climate change. Now on the other hand, to those who say drill baby drill, I say, listen, there is an important place for oil and gas in our economy. We will grow, we will create jobs, we will continue to power this country and we should be proud of that. But to be clear, if we don't stop climate change, the repercussions will extend beyond the economic. We will see irreversible changes to our health, social order and security. And to put it simply, there's no economy if there's no clean water, no ability to grow crops and record numbers of extreme floods, fires and hurricanes. And let me tell you something else you might not know. In Alberta, we know we're gonna be among the first to feel it and among the hardest hit. That's actually the conclusion of a report commissioned by the government of Alberta under our watch and delivered, however, to the legislature last week. The report by well-known and respected climate scientists Katherine Hayhoe and Anne Stoner lays it out in stark terms. Alberta will warm faster than most of the rest of the planet, causing a profound impact on our economy, our infrastructure and the health of our citizens. Extreme high and low temperatures, extreme drought, it's extreme precipitation causing impacts to our farmers and our ranchers. And the high risk of devastating wildfires and floods in our communities. And it's happening now. We had the Calgary flood, the Slade Lake fire, the Fort McMurray fire, the second biggest fire season on record just last May. And so that we actually last May had the strange and highly ironic experience last June 1st. When the UCP was forced to cancel all of its carbon tax removal media celebration, because the city of Edmonton was under such a thick cloud of smoke that street lights turned on at 2 p.m. in the afternoon and no one could venture outside without a mask. But what did the current Premier of Alberta do with this report that I just described? They hid it. They backdated the report and buried it on the government website. Hiding this kind of information is the opposite of what we need to do if we are going to build the consensus we need to do better. There are those who argued the Candace contribution to global emissions is small relatively speaking and therefore we should wait for somebody else to take the lead. But we are a country with relative prosperity, high education, and a stable and robust democracy. If we can't figure this out, how can we expect anyone else to? Our contribution on climate change should not be measured by ton, but by the contribution we can make as world leaders. And to those who don't agree, I would remind them that the entire world is already moving to clean energy. And our industry will be left behind if we don't build a framework that helps company like tech, the one I talked about before that just withdrew its application, invest billions and create thousands of jobs. Because that's where the world is going. And that's not activism, that's economics. The most important thing to emerge in the last year is the fact that investors are beginning to look at fossil fuels with greater skepticism. There is no capital for coal mines or coal plants. And capital for natural gas and petroleum is quickly becoming more expensive and more demanding. Specifically, global investors are demanding effective policy on climate change. And here's what my successor has missed. 10 years ago, he might have been able to be here in Ottawa and argue that strong climate change policy was bad for investment and therefore for jobs. But now, capital follows strong climate change policy instead of avoiding it. So his kind of denial is bad for the economy and bad for jobs, including in the very core energy business that Alberta's economy is built on. And that actually is the lesson of the tech decision that was made a couple of weeks ago. So the bottom line is many of our leaders are not finding how to work in a determined way with the oil and gas sector while engineering, measurable, meaningful, and necessary progress, combating climate change. And here's the thing. The awful truth is sometimes dividing people is an easier path to power than uniting them. It's easier to tweet in all caps than it is to build conversation and consensus. And until we start accepting and solving these underlying and complex social and environmental challenges in a real way and stop retreating to simplistic political narratives, Canada will not move forward. So, my friends, I'm a new Democrat from Alberta. I believe in a high minimum wage and universal childcare. I also believe in the value of good jobs, many of which will be in oil and gas for quite some time to come. I also believe in the imperative to take action to stop climate change. I'm of the view that the gains we make, making life better for working people, protecting our schools, our hospitals, and yes, even tackling climate change do not come for free. We do these things by growing the economy and then making sure that everyone, not just the wealthy, benefits from that growth. I believe we must diversify our economy and that government has a role in creating the conditions for that diversification. That for reconciliation to be real, we have to drive and share the growth that empowers indigenous people, that lowers poverty, that brings clean water to reserves, that begins to address systemic issues of racism and social inequality that have plagued this country for far too long. And that in all of this, working people cannot ever be seen as necessary collateral damage, never. So when we ignore all this, when we tell those folks that they are just on the wrong side of history and they just have to suck it up, or when alternatively we hide the facts and the science about the need to combat climate change, we are harming both ourselves and the country. So that's what's happening now, jobs lost, inequality on the rise, working people left behind, society angry and more polarized than ever. So look around Canada if you wanna see how that's working out. This attitude isn't actually sustainable. We cannot keep on living as if there are two different Canada's and that's okay. We need to wake up from this East versus West trap. We need each other. And let me say this, there are no reasons on the prairies in Quebec or anywhere else to break up Canada. The so-called separatists and dividers who argue otherwise need to be confronted and their lies exposed. But we must work together. Canadians must realize that Alberta is not a problem to be managed, but a solution that is just within reach. So if someone has been intimately involved with Alberta politics for most of my life, elected for 11 years, campaigned across the province for most of those years and earned the privilege of governing it for four. Here are a few things that I would offer about how we should move forward. First, on the matter of reconciliation and indigenous sovereignty, I must be honest. I don't profess to have anything close to the solution to the many challenges that exist. Indeed, relative to many of my colleagues as premiers and political leaders across this country, outside of my good intentions, I've actually personally had less experience navigating these conflicts on the front lines in the way that has become necessary in the last few months. But I would only suggest that we devote all the time, patience, and resources necessary to make progress. And I would also caution that while this work goes on, we must resist the temptation, regardless of the position that one is advancing, to appropriate or conflate this work with other challenges and disputes. Whether pursuing immediate climate action or immediate industrial development, First Nation voices must lead. They must be respected, not seized, not manipulated. For example, the current strategy of the government of Alberta is troubling. While it's absolutely the case that many, many First Nations leaders seek greater involvement in oil and gas development as a means of growing prosperity for their people. And that it is very true that these voices must be heard. The Alberta government's current strategy of providing funding and legal assistance only to those First Nations who perceive an agenda approved by the government is disrespectful. It is contrary to reconciliation and may very well lead to more division, not less in the long term. Secondly, we have to move away from the divisive approach around climate action and economic development. I've already talked extensively about this, but we just have to see them as complementary, not contradictory. We must resist the efforts to polarize these discussions and reject those who would use them to bait people into picking one over the other. Third, as political leaders at every level, we must acknowledge that one of Canada's most important industries is going through a future defining restructuring. This impacts us at a much more personal level in Alberta, I'll admit. But the consequences are just as real for all Canadians as they are in Alberta. There must be a national commitment to support the Canadian energy industry in the context of my first two points with our efforts to fight climate change and pursue reconciliation. We need new opportunities, new economic activity, and new policy that supports our quality of life. Fourth, and I'm getting really close to the end, I promise. We must, in this age of soundbites and tweet threads, resist the temptation to put short-term politics above long-term goals. And I'll admit, this is a hard one for me too. It's a hard one for any elected politician. But we must recognize that when playing politics becomes about only playing politics and not serving people, we will almost definitely fail. At a certain point, the fate of the country has to become more important than our fate at the ballot box or even our fate in the media cycle. Finally, we have to stand up against this ridiculous talk of separation. No matter what promise is talking about it. The majority of Albertans do not support it. It is not a solution. And talk of it makes the economic uncertainty that spawned it worse. To win these arguments, to keep the separatist fires from catching in the tall grass, Canadians on the prairies and in every province need to know that their current economic challenges, their interests and concerns and prosperity and the futures of their children all matter. And that they matter to all Canadians. So those are some of my ideas. I know not everyone will agree. I know it's not a silver bullet. I know it means hard work. But I also know we can do it. All of it. Every single thing Canadians count on for our quality of life really depends that we get this right. Canada is a place where we respect each other and look out for one another. And if we could only see this nation's challenges through each other's eyes, I know that we can and will build a better country and eventually deal with anger in Alberta. Because that's who we are, my friends. We are builders. So thank you very much for inviting me to come here today to speak to you. And I look forward to chatting with you with some of the questions going forward. And once again if someone wants to begin their questions by telling us what's going on with Super Tuesday, that would be super cool as well. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Rachel. So I think the evening with Rachel Notley was a perfect title in the end. We laughed a little bit. Some of us from Alberta might have cried a little bit. And we cheered. So it all worked out in the end. So we have about 10, 15 minutes for questions. There's microphones set up here and another one over here if you wanna go to the microphone or you can flag me down if you wanna ask a question and you don't wanna get up. So I think we have so many of you, Laura. Excellent speech. Thank you so much for coming to Ottawa. Today at Carleton we gave our students a case study which we have written on the wet-so-wets in situation. And so we're asking their views. And so let's hear from you. What do you think about the situation, please? About the wet-so-wets? I am apologizing, I've not said it correctly. Oh, no, sorry, I just didn't quite hear that. Well, I mean, I think it's a very, very difficult challenge. I think the challenge is particularly pronounced in BC which is the place where we have no-seated territory and we have some of the most complicated legal decisions governing the rights. Those decisions, first of all, are misery to understand and also are evolving. And that's happening while people are trying to develop economically and thinking that they're consulting but then finding that they haven't done it adequately and then maybe they haven't consulted with the right people. And so I'm not gonna lay blame. It is an absolute challenge and it is something that I think can only be resolved through dialogue and through more conversation and as much as possible, a dialing back of the intensity a little bit in order to give time and space for those conversations to be had. But we have to also recommit ourselves to make it an absolute priority. There's a tendency, and I'll say this from my own personal experience, when you're in a position of leadership, when the crisis passes, you are dragged into the next crisis and it's hard to maintain the discipline to retain the focus and the resources necessary to make the progress that you need to on something as complicated, not only with so it in problem or challenges but also with reconciliation across the country. So there's a lot of work to be done. Certainly when I was part of the Council of the Federation and when I was Premier, we knew that there was multiple layers of conversation and negotiation that had to take place. And quite honestly, the perspective that I came to it from as a Premier was that I also had a democratic responsibility to represent all the people in my province. And so how do we work through the conflicting rights? So it's not easy. But I do think as Canadians, we have the ability to do this. We truly are a reasonable group of humans and we're thoughtful. And I think overall we're kind-hearted. And I think we have the resources to care for each other and to support each other as we struggle with some of the challenges. And so that's what we need to make our goal rather than manipulating the situation to promote more division. And that's something that we have to work very hard to avoid and reject. So, there you go. Why don't we hop to the next microphone and then we can come back. Good evening. My name is Danny and I really appreciate your lecture today. I have a question about whether division or dialogue is related to the electoral quotient in the legislature. So for example, in Prince Edward Island, there's about 4,000 people for each provincial elected representative. And I would say that it's fairly peaceful in negotiations or at least during the lit period of the election. Whereas in Ontario it's over 100,000 people for each elected representative. So my question would be do you think that could have an impact on politics in Alberta or Canada or anywhere, in fact? I'm sorry, so you're asking whether the size of our constituencies has an impact on the nature of dialogue? Yeah, or division, yes. I don't necessarily think so. I mean, so constituencies in Alberta range in size from about around 40 to 50,000 voters in each one. They're too big for MLAs to necessarily speak to every voter, although we try very hard to get to every doorstep a couple of times in each cycle. So, I mean, I think there are issues that are dividing Albertans and that we are struggling to come to terms with. I don't think they're driven necessarily by constituency size. I think it is, you know, the fact that we are under profound economic stress and notwithstanding that we had tremendous prosperity for many years, we had a government that was for 40 years didn't really plan for the future and didn't set us up to take the concentration of wealth that we had in Alberta to reinvest it in diversification or the same. So when people are under stress, when they aren't sure if their job will be there next week or next year, if their spouse has lost their job, if their expectations are for the future are in jeopardy, that creates anger. And then I do think that a lot of it, unfortunately, is linked to clear issues relating to inter-provincial and national decision-making. And so it renders itself vulnerable to a certain demonization and political narrative to which people have directed their anger, whether rightly or wrongly. So that's kind of a summary. Okay, thank you for your synopsis slash summary. Pardon me, thanks. Thanks, thank you for the synopsis or summary. Okay, we have quite a few people waiting to ask questions. Do you mind if we take a couple at a time? I thought you were gonna tell me to keep it shorter. Oh, I would never tell you. Wrap it up. We need to come all the way here, so we're super happy to hear. By all means, tell me to wrap it up, it's fine, I'm good, yeah. Maybe what we can do is just take one question on each side and if you wanna keep it kind of short and then we'll answer. Thanks so much for your talk. My name's Alice, I'm a student at Carleton. You mentioned finding a happy medium between sentiments like drill baby drill or and keep it in the ground. And I certainly appreciate the importance of doing that, but I'm wondering if you can be any more specific in regards to what that looks like. In other words, how do we reduce greenhouse gas emissions while supporting growth in emission intensive industries? Absolutely, so very good question. And in fact, you know, when we talk about happy medium, I don't even necessarily like that, although I think I'd perhaps characterize it that way. I don't even like to look at it as a balance, it's either this or that. It's that one serves the other, they're complementary as opposed to contradictory. So let me give you an example. What happens right now is unless we as a country decide to literally nationalize the oil sands and the oil industry, which I'm pretty sure is not gonna happen in Canada. The fact of the matter is, is there economic interest that a number of different oil and gas producers have in Alberta and other parts of the country that allows them to produce that product no matter what? Like they've already invested in it, it's already gonna be produced. So the question becomes, do we get $15 a barrel for it or do we get $60 a barrel for it? And how much of that comes back to Albertans and Canadians? And if we get the right price back for it, can we then invest that price into transition, whether it be technologies that reduce the emissions within each barrel. And there has been tremendous progress in that regard just in the last 10 years. Or do we even do things like invest in a just transition and supporting consumers in the transition off of coal, for instance, which was the single biggest drop in greenhouse gas emissions arising from our saying, we're just shutting down our coal. Or we invest in renewable energy, we subsidize the development of it. So basically that is going to, the emissions are gonna be produced regardless, especially because we put the cap in to a certain point and then it will stop. And the question is, do we get the money from it to reduce the amount of emissions for the amount that's being produced? And then at the same time, invest in a whole range of other strategies to further drive down emissions. And do so in a way that supports working people. Because we can't do this in a way that just says, oh, we gotta stop it and those people are just gonna have to somehow find a way to retool and completely reinvent their lives and if they don't, well, that's too bad. Because we're gonna have a Trump scenario because people will just be so abandoned and so angry. And frankly, I don't think that's who we are as Canadians and it's not who I am as New Democrat. So that's how you do it, is that you understand that these players are willing to do the work to reduce their emissions. And that if we support it, we can get more money. I mean, it's ridiculous that in Quebec and Ontario, people are shipping in oil and gas that have come from places outside of the country that have crossed the Atlantic Ocean and other places in great big ships that have burned a whole bunch of greenhouse gas emissions and are paying WTI for that oil, the whatever, $40, $50 a barrel. And meanwhile, Canadians on the other side of the country who also pay taxes aren't able to sell for more than 10. It's not smart, we can do better. Yeah. You wanna go on that side? Hello, my name is Nathaniel Black. I'm undergraduate governor-elect here at Carleton. My question is, your government maintained a strong stance on students at raising minimum wage, freezing tuitions, all the rest. What do you have to say for provincial governments that say that we're undertaking a time of economic stress such as here in Ontario, yet sort of are approaching compromising fundamental values that are important to students? What do you have to say to that from an economic perspective? Well, obviously I think it's ridiculously short-sighted. I think that the more we can support our students, educate our students, give them the tools to go off into the world and not only live their lives, but ultimately contribute to the economy, the better. Saddling students with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt is not a way to grow the economy. Reducing accessibility to the kind of education that will give people the tools to participate fully in the economy is not a way to grow the economy. Inequality in and of itself is a drag on economic growth and limiting access to post-secondary education or undermining the quality of post-secondary education is one of a number of strategies that will grow inequality and in so doing, hamper our prosperity. So from an economic point of view, after investing in universal childcare, which is the number one biggest thing that we can do to grow our economy in this country, and we are so far behind. And also take care of our children who are cute and we love them. But also after that, investing in a post-secondary and ensuring that our students can afford to go is a critical environment or economic plank above and beyond the community value of giving people the opportunity to gain knowledge. Great, so I'm getting nervous. So there's an increasing lineup. Maybe we can take two questions from this side just back to back and then I'll get you to answer them together. Does that work? Well, thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Very thoughtful. Marc-André Gagnon, professor at Calter University in public policy. You mentioned how important it was to not, well, not letting a short-term politics take over long-term goal. For me, there's one mystery about NDP in Alberta. It was May 2018, basically on the pharmacare issue. It's just after two years of consultation, Standing Committee on Health at the House of Commons arrived with this report calling for universal pharmacare. Western premiers are meeting in Yellowknife. There was some problems, let's say, between Alberta and BC. But basically, well, you refuse to go, I can understand that. But the person from Alberta was there, refused to sign the joint communique in favor of universal pharmacare. It was, that would have been a huge window of opportunity in order to advance this issue that is super difficult to move forward. I mean, I'm a proud Quebecer, and I do want to have this country to work, everybody working together. But basically, the refusal to sign on universal pharmacare was about, well, if we don't get the pipeline, we refuse to move on any other issue. And this message for me from Quebec is just, how can we make this country work if in a province, we say, well, pipelines becomes the preconditions before moving anything else forward? Well, one could say, just from the other perspective, why is the absence of pipelines a precondition for moving anything forward? Listen, our government advocated in a multiplicity of forums for pharmacare. There were a number of different Council of the Federation communicates, which, to be clear, every time the Council gets together, they issue a number of communicates, and you will note that they've had profound effect. Anyway, so I'm gonna be a little pragmatic about what it is, you know? Like, it's not like this was a bill that was, it was or was not gonna come in. This was a communique from the Council of the Federation, and it wasn't the Council of the Federation, it was the Western Premier, so yeah, there's that. So, it was an opportunity to make a point, and there was really nothing to be lost by not doing it. If you look at the substance, we actually expanded funding for pharmacare under our government. We increased access to pharmaceuticals, and at the Council of the Federation, and in conversations with the federal government where there was actually a chance to get some outcome, we were amongst the biggest supporters of pharmacare. So, where there was the chance to actually make, move it forward, there was no way on the planet that we wouldn't have not let that happen. Thank you. Sorry, I was supposed to wait. It's okay, it's okay. I was just trying to get the most questions in so we could make the most of your time. Maybe we can try it again, so. You've been waiting for a while. Do you want to just try to keep it pretty quick? Sure, Miss Nautley, if we try to imagine an alternate universe in Alberta, if, do you think people will remember the pain of Jason Kenny's austerity measures if and on the condition that oil prices skyrocket in Alberta so that the economy picks up again and everything becomes hunky-dory? Okay, and then let's quickly take yours as well. Hi there, I'm Colm. I'm a fourth year journalism student at Carleton. And it was argued at the last election that the provincial Alberta NDP actually harmed the federal NDP and their election results because of their positions on the oil sector and the energy sector. Do you think it's beneficial to have differing regional views on such important pieces of legislation while also arguing a strong united front for your long-term goals? So, two things. So going first to that one, I think that certainly if oil prices were to explode and Jason Kenny were to reverse his position on austerity and stop hurting people the way he is right now, then yes, as possible people would look at it again. And interestingly, he has a tendency and some people who observe his government have a tendency to compare it to the Ralph Kline government. What people don't remember is that Ralph Kline, unlike me and so far Jason Kenny actually won the lottery and a non-renewable resource revenue exploded soon after all of the cuts that Ralph Kline made. And so he made all these cuts for three years but for the next four or five years he shoveled money off the back of a truck and pretty much undid all those cuts and then some. So the reality is it wasn't that people forgot his austerity, it's that he in a really disorganized and expensive way undid his austerity. So that's the thing that's different than what we're looking at now. In answer to the question here, I don't think that that's necessarily true. I think that there are different challenges facing the federal party and different challenges facing our party. It's not new that there are differences between provincial sections of our party and the federal party, just as there are differences between provincial sections of other parties and their federal party. You know, we went into the federal election with one seat in Alberta and we came out of the federal election with one seat in Alberta. And really I will tell you that I worked very hard to not be engaging in campaigning outside of that. So I think there were a lot of issues that impacted what happened in the last federal campaign and I don't actually know that the position or the record of the Alberta NDP were particularly relevant at the end of the day. All right, that worked fabulously. Thank you. So we have two more questions on this side and two questions on this side. So very quickly I'll get you to both ask your question on this side, one after the other, and then we'll go to the side. Hello, Ms. Nautli. Regarding the recent blockades, what solution do you have to solve such irreconcilable disagreements with some indigenous and environmental protesters who may block future projects, and particularly trans-bountain? That's right, you said with regard to which? Like trans-bountain. If there's blockades to block trans-bountain pipeline. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. Sorry. No, I'm getting in on it. I was gonna say let's take the second question before you start answering that one. Okay, I didn't quite hear what it was. That was all you just said. Can you just repeat a bit of your question? Yeah. Of course. Regarding the recent blockades, oh, there we go. Regarding the recent blockades, what solution do you have to solve such irreconcilable disagreements with some indigenous and environmental protesters who may choose to block future projects, in particular trans-bountain? Hi, Ms. Nautli. It's been a pleasure to hear you speak today. I'm actually from Red Deer, Alberta, and I just seem to remember right after the 2015 election that people were so scared that there was any kind of change, and like there's this sort of idea in Alberta of like the divine right of kings of the conservative party. And I was just wondering how you think we can have, like build a dialogue rather than division when people almost aren't even willing to listen to other perspectives as they're so set in their ways, like Alberta's conservative, it's always been conservative anytime that there's any challenge to that. It's seen as like, I remember, don't blame me, I didn't vote NDP bumper stickers, things like this, people were going crazy. So I just wondered how you would think we could reconcile that. Well, okay, so two very different questions. I mean, I think it's a bit of a hypothetical going forward with blockades and or protests that may arise under different pipelines or with respect to different development regardless of what kind of development it is. I think it depends a great deal on the nature of the development, the consultation that's already been underway and the degree to which the courts have fully canvassed and other players have fully canvassed the issue and the degree to which those concerns have been already accommodated and what the pros and cons are and what stands to be lost. I mean, every situation is different. I think dialogue is important. I think doing that within the context of the rule of law is important. I think that accommodation pursuant to the charter with respect to indigenous rights is fundamentally important and it's got to be done. And so, I mean, it's a bit hard to sort of completely answer that question because I think there's a lot of hypotheticals, but these problems aren't going away, but at the same time as a country, we have to find a way to move forward. And yeah, so that's where I'll leave that. In terms of the, yeah, it's hard to say really in Alberta, I think a lot of what's, sometimes you have hope and optimism and the desire to listen to your better angels drive your political choices and sometimes you are scared or frustrated or angry and those drive your political choices. And I think it depends, and I'm not saying that people vote one way when they're happy and another way when they're angry, I'm not trying to suggest that because in fact, populism works for the left as well as the right. I will say that I think, what I hope and what we see in our polling is that if nothing else, the win that we secured in 2015 broke the very narrative that you're talking about in Alberta, whereas people always thought, oh, I can't get involved, I can't speak up, it's never gonna change and seriously, I lived in Ontario for a brief period of time, I lived in BC for nine years and when I moved back to Alberta, the biggest thing that I noticed that drove me bananas was how talking politics seemed to be a thing that was impolite at the time because people were so concerned about, it's the conservatives and you can never speak against the conservatives, so let's just not talk politics at all. And I think that what happened in 2015 is that even though we lost in 2019, although we did actually get more votes in 2019 than we did in 2015, what we did was we gave Albertans permission to talk politics and so I think that conversation is going to continue and I, as much as I say, we should not engage in polarizing simplistic division, I will say, I absolutely love partisan politics and I love partisan political debate and I would never in a million years suggest people should not engage in partisan political debate because that's democracy and so I just want us to do it in a way that where we hear each other and where we're somewhat connected to the facts, not a big ask, but I think that's something we should do. Okay, last two questions very quickly on the side. Hello, my name is Brianna Greer and I'm a student at the University of Northern British Columbia and I had a question in regards to whether you think that the crown's duty to consult with indigenous people is sufficient in the resource development sector and I ask this because currently the crown only consults with elected officials and seen right now in the media the issue with the wetsuit and unceded territory, the delgemo, sorry, did I pronounce that wrong? That is set a precedent and now it's really uncertain between elected and hereditary chiefs. I was just wondering your opinion on that subject. Thank you. Hello, my name's Mitch. I'm from Grand Prairie, Alberta, so just wanna say that I was super proud when you were elected in 2015, but I had one question. Hey. You noted that Albertans feel like they don't get a decent deal sometimes from the federal government in terms of funding. One thing I would point out is that Alberta does have some of the lowest taxes in Canada and still doesn't have a provincial sales tax. I think the only province that doesn't and speaking of someone who lives in Ontario now, I kinda feel I don't wanna send a cent until Alberta at least raises their taxes to the average in Canada. Despite me loving the province and being very proud of your time there as a premier. Thank you. Thank you. So in terms of the issue of consultation, I mean, I think, I mean, listen, we are a democracy that ultimately also has a judiciary and respects the rule of law and I think that the nature of consultation continues to be evolving. I think that the federal court of appeal decision around TMX and the two rounds of consultation sets out some parameter, but I don't think it's going to, that that's the be all and end all and I do think that it will continue to evolve and as you rightly say, I think it's a function of BC, I could be wrong, but I think that the issue of who you consult with is also still a live issue, at least in BC and so that has to be resolved and it's a tough one because I think within indigenous communities themselves there's not consensus on that and so that makes it even more difficult because the issue, I mean, obviously should be indigenous communities who decides who you consult with, but at a certain point someone at some point has to decide who you consult with, like there has to be an answer there and so it's a hard issue to really work through, but even though it is difficult, we shouldn't just throw our hands up and walk away and then just plow her through as though there's nothing there and conversely, it shouldn't be used as a means of achieving a different objective for 25 years where everything else stops and that's why I think that there needs to be a really dedicated, concerted, well-resourced, thoughtful, super informed, super democratic, super inclusive levels of conversation so it's not a small task, but anyway, and until the courts come up and tell us something different or until we amend the constitution, which is unlikely to ever happen, so complicated. In terms of the other question, yes, no question, I do know that that is the primary point that is made by people outside of Alberta that, yep, absolutely, you should start paying more taxes, fair enough, but then conversely, that still does not account for there is still a lot of capital moving from west to east as well in terms of our tax system so as it is with the relatively low taxes that are paid in Alberta, there's still a lot of money moving from west to east and the other fact of the matter is is that introducing a new tax onto an economy that as I did spend, I think about two hours, felt like two hours to me, did it feel like two hours to you? Spent quite some time describing how our economy is struggling right now, that now is not the time to argue let's throw another tax on top of it all because that is a struggle and if we could, and that would slow down growth even more and there are other things that we need to resolve first so that would be my answer to that question. So you're ready for our dance portion now? Yeah, sure, sure. You start, the Cadillac ranch, do you know Cadillac ranch? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not gonna happen. So at this point, there will be a reception that follows so we can maybe take the chance to ask you some more questions after you have a glass of water, I'm sure. But at this point in the evening, I'd like to invite Andre Plourde, the Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs, to come up and thank Rachel Notley on our behalf. Thanks. Thank you so much. You're going? You're going? I'm staying? Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mary. I think as to begin, I would like first of all to thank you for this wonderful evening but I think anybody who is here tonight is absolutely in no doubt that you're not done yet. Thank you for taking us through this journey of Alberta in Canada and Canada with Alberta. It's very important I think for us to hear messages like this in Eastern Canada. It also reminds me on a personal note, listening to you as one of the authors of another report, carefully buried by another government of Alberta. It's disheartening to see that things like that still happen. So thank you again for being here. We have a lot of our students here tonight, a lot of graduates, some of them recent, some of them maybe less recent. And some of them are really following your lead and making a difference in the future of our country. So thank you very much for being here with us tonight and please. Tonight is part of the FPA research series. You're invited to all of our other events in this series, including lectures, conferences, I think I'm losing you, panel discussions. You can pick up one of our brochures outside or visit our website at carleton.ca backslash FPA. And as Mary indicated, there's a reception in Woodside Hall. I hope you can join us. Thank you very much everybody for being here tonight. Good night.