Meeting with Trudeau encouraging, but no assurances on pipelines: Suncor CEO

“To this end, the federal government is committing to fast track infrastructure investments for Alberta, which has applied for almost $700 million under the existing Building Canada allocation to help address urgent economic and infrastructure needs”.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has questioned whether Quebecers should continue to expect billions in equalization payments if they won’t support the export of resources that help drive those payments.

She said it will be a matter of “weeks to months” before the money is available.

“Today we were able to confirm that the federal government will start pushing it out the door as soon as we are ready to go”. We really hope Notley’s tasteful joke landed.

Her government ramped up infrastructure spending in its last budget to catch up on a backlog of projects and help keep the economy moving in hard times.

Canada’s energy industry, which has become a major engine of economic growth, is centered in Alberta, home to the oil sands.

Before Wednesday, there had been no formal announcement on the fate of those dollars.

In response to the crisis, Justin Trudeau announced that Ottawa is prepared to provide up to $1-billion to Alberta in the form of a “fiscal lifeline” and fast-tracked infrastructure funding.

“It depends on the list and what goes on there and the number of projects”, he said.

While Mr. Trudeau did not make any promises on either pipeline on Wednesday, he said after an hour-long sit-down with Rachel Notley that he came with the intent of listening to her priorities for a federal infrastructure plan, reforms to employment insurance, and the province’s commitment to tackling climate change.

“As you know this was a commitment we made through the election campaign to strengthen EI to make it more responsive to people who actually need … and now Alberta is facing some real challenges in needing it and we’re going to make sure that it’s there for them”.

“The governments of Alberta and Canada share common goals and principles around energy market access, working together with other provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous leaders”. The last such meeting was in 2005 with then-prime minister Paul Martin and Ralph Klein, according to Notley’s office.

Trudeau, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Premier Rachel Notley took part in two roundtables Thursday morning.

In his first official visit to Alberta as prime minister, the oil sector was looking for strong signals that Trudeau is serious about helping deliver its commodity to coasts where it can be shipped to foreign markets.

A key plank in that plan is Energy East, a controversial pipeline that has drawn the ire of many along its route through Eastern Canada.

Mr. Trudeau told reporters that such steps are needed to rebuild public trust in the review process, which he said was damaged under the previous government’s push to win approval for new pipelines without sufficient consideration of environmental issues.