Advocacy in Action: Provincial Roundtable with Minister of Municipal Affairs, Tracy Allard and Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity, Dale Nally

On October 14 we participated in a roundtable with Minister of Municipal Affairs, Tracy Allard and Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity, Dale Nally.

Minister Allard focused on the recovery plan and opportunities to work together, while Associate Minister Nally focused on the government’s response to the pandemic.

There is a $24 billion hole in the budget coupled with inflation and so they are working on recovery, including the $10 B investment in infrastructure.

Some key highlights of our meeting included:

Jobs, economy and innovation is starting a crown corporation called Invest Alberta
With the new corporate tax rates, Alberta is now competitive with states such as Louisianna and Texas.
Natural Gas Vision and strategy includes a number of strategies around Natural Gas, petrochemicals, hydrogen, LNG and circular plastics.
There is an opportunity to grow Alberta’s petrochemical sector by more than $30 billion by 2030
The Hydrogen Council estimates that by 2050, the global hydrogen sector could generate US$2.5 trillion per year and create 30 million jobs.
According to a report by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), 86 percent of plastics were landfilled in 2016. This represents a C$7.8-billion lost opportunity. One particular study indicated 4,500 direct full-time equivalent jobs are created in the province as a result of existing recycling activities with a further 1,600 indirect and 1,400 induced jobs, for a total of 7,500 jobs.
The APIP program was announced in July 2020 and so the department has been consulting with industry over the past month. They have run the technical details through Government and cabinet and the technical specifications should be out fairly soon.
With respect to industrial zones and special economic zones, they have looked at the MGA and have determined that the MGA is not a roadblock to the development of industrial zones. However, what they did determine is that the regulator under Environment and Parks needs to take the lead on this and how to make the system work as efficiently as possible.
They are also reviewing the MGA and there will be changes coming, particularly in relation to Part 17, Planning and Development