Fallout over Alberta restricting renewable energy projects | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

Renewables have a place in our Energy Mix but the fact remains that they are intermittent and unreliable they are not the Silver Bullet for Alberta’s electricity needs and they are not the Silver Bullet of electricity affordability albertans have been vocal that they don’t want large-scale developments to interfere with our

Province’s most beautiful natural features Premier Smith has chosen to announce this a day before her budget in the hopes that you won’t notice that you’ll forget that Daniel Smith is killing an industry and making your life more expensive the government of Alberta today announced that it will restrict

Renewables buildt on farmland and create buffers for so-called pristine viewscapes the policy announcement follows a pause on the development of all renewals as of last August the minister overseeing the policy admits it will likely lead to less investment but argues that the cost of responsible land use what message does the announcement

Send politically let’s bring back the front bench to talk about that s selvam Gary Maher Carl belong and Ma Walsh I should qualify Gary that I I wrote that prior to my interview with him and and he didn’t concede the same thing in our interview that he did in others that I

Had that I had read him talk about he was saying I think renewable investment will still continue despite these restrictions do you think this is politically motivated or or do you think otherwise well first of all I’ll say this um here in the province of Alberta

We are the leader in terms of per capita renewable generation of electricity um and the reason why is because we don’t have a provincial Crown Corporation responsible for it it’s a it’s a market that’s open to competition the consequence is we have more wind and solar than any other place in the

Country on a per capita basis but to the premier’s point um it is intermittent so we’ve got roughly say 1100 megaw of electricity that can be generated in Alberta uh through solar panels the problem with that is that the actual capacity of 1100 uh you know megawatts

Is that we only get about 20% of actual electricity out of it because the wind doesn’t or the the sun doesn’t always shine uh on all days of the year and same thing with wind turbin uh we’ve got wind turbines in this province that generate or have the capacity to

Generate a lot of power but the wind doesn’t always blow and I think what the premier is trying to do politically is strike the balance between the need for Renewables which is a positive thing uh to continue to have uh the expression of uh of provincial jurisdiction which this

Is and that there are two agencies that the province mandates to take care of it one is the surface rights board and the second one is the uh the Alberta energy regulator trying to strike the balance between um you know the the needs of land owners uh Farmers uh of maintaining

Pristine uh Vistas in the province I mean I don’t think anybody in the gatau uh gatau Hills would want you know the gatau hills to be spoiled by a whole bunch of wind turbin that are placed there um I don’t think that farmers in Southwestern Saskatchewan would want

Productive farmland and covered uh with solar panels right and so trying to strike the balance I think is important here uh but I would point out to um you know the uh The Honorable shahal who spoke to the issue in Parliament today that um that this this is a provincial

Jurisdiction and uh I don’t think that there needs to be Federal interference with what it is that the province of Alberta is trying to accomplish yeah I take that point S I think the the reason I mean there there is some I guess accusation from the government’s critics about this being

More political than anything else is because despite the concerns around land use and pristine land I mean they’ve and I was pointing this out to the minister earlier there’s this open pit coal mine that The Regulators have said shouldn’t go ahead in the Rocky Mountains and the

Government has sort of intervened to put that before a regulatory process again uh which sort of you know prompts I think the question of about whether this is ideological now the minister to be fair said it isn’t but I think that’s why the questions are being asked yeah

And I think politically this also makes sense for the premier just given the fact that she’s kind of touted this line before she is really focused on the fact that while Alberta is technically a leader when it comes to Renewables they need to kind of dial it back a little

Bit in order to make room for other projects and she has consulted with different communities as well uh where a lot of the feedback especially from land owners was that they want a lot of that land uh freed up they don’t want a lot of building or construction to happen on

That land especially so she’s in a good position politically to make this stance but it also plays into the fact and the kind of narrative that she’s had going back and forth between Ottawa saying look um this is my Province I’m very concerned about my province in terms of

Um overreach or overregulation but this is where I’m laying down the hammer and I think that has a lot of bandwidth to do that just given the fact that this is not going to be a political lightning rod uh like I think her saying I’m not

Going to sign on to the pharmacare deal would be so I think she’s playing it safe and she has the bandwidth to do it especially given the fact that they’ve invested so much in Renewables and again as we can recall uh not too long ago Alberta’s grid was overloaded so just

Timing wise this is a a prudent way of saying look um I’d like to make some room for some alternatives here it was overloaded I mean interestingly not just was there not enough renewable energy to to supplement it or supplant it but also two natural gas plants failed in the midst of that

Big alert that went out in January so it it is definitely complicated I think say has a great point though about this not being the lightning rod with the federal government that other Alberta Ottawa issues are because no disrespect meant to Mr shahal but in previous issues

You’ve seen a minister like Randy boso come out and really start sounding off on on on the premier in this s uh it was not Randy bosau or step gibo it was it was George dahal yeah I mean I think that no disrespect to George Jal I think

You’re right the the level of prominence that comes with that is less the fight is therefore a bit less I think though the government the province has not really explained why there are inconsistencies between things like the open open pit coal mine that you talked about to the minister and the the need

To save the landscape from windmill I mean I think social media was sort of a light with many academics pointing out that there are Wells on Farmland in Alberta and it’s fine and it happens so I think this does seem to me to be more about a culture and political play

Rather than about an explanation of policy that is in line with their other policies that they have on other resource extraction um and I think it’s interesting what the response from the business Community will be because it seems to be there’s one set of rules for traditional resources like fossil fuels and a

Different set of rules for Renewables now for Alberta I’m really curious to see what the renewable industry says as well because when the pause happened of course that took them all by shock Carl but they had been looking for certainty and the ministers you know framing on

This is this policy will offer that certainty yeah I can’t wait for the court to rules on what on on what is a pristine view you know oh well this project cannot go ahead because it’s a pristine view there’s a lot I live there there’s a lot of pristine yeah but but

This view here is just it’s kind of nice it’s not pristine so I mean it’s fascinating just to watch how a conservative government goes after an industry goes after the market and the market developed in Alberta in a way that uh you are a leader in this renewable energy field and now you’re

Giving that up you’re giving that up for what seems to be a little shortsighted now I I’m all in favor of Defending pristine views whatever that may be but but the reality is that you know we can say that sun is inter you can say that the wind is intermittent but there’s

Also a limited amount of fossil fuels available the reserves in terms of of oil in Alberta are about 50 years worth at the rate of consumption right now so what do you do next and this is where I think it’s a little shortsighted now I

Think I think there will be a lot of of challenges ahead I think the industry doesn’t think it’s it gives them more certainty because it’s not clear what’s going to happen to their projects and they’re going to have to go through this new process and and try to figure out if

The view is pristine enough to block it do you think Gary that there is a way for that investment to continue or do you think de facto because there will just be more restrictions on where it can develop that it will mean less investment I think with the right uh

Policy levers um investment can continue uh but again it’s about striking the balance between land owners uh tourism ecological values uh the need for electricity uh but you know here’s what I’ll say Carl and everybody else in the panel I invite you to come out to western Canada and see how beautiful

This part of the world is and so uh you would you would appreciate why albertans feel very strongly about the eastern slopes and the whaleback regions of the province and and uh you know the the Rocky Mountains uh if you haven’t been here I’ll say you know a picture is

Worth a thousand words but a visit is worth a th pictures covered is worth a thousand it is and it is pristine I I having lived there and covered you Gary at the time I I can’t disagree with that I think though you know the the argument around the pristine nature of the

Landsite I’ll Circle back to it you’d think would also apply to an open pit as equally as it does to a huge windmill you think so and I guess that’s why they’re dodging that whole issue I mean they’re not doubling down on it they’re not really talking about it or

Highlighting it they’re essentially saying hey we are basically at capacity when it comes to renewable energy we want to defend our pristine lands we want to make sure that uh Calgary and the rest of Alberta remains as pristine as possible focusing on things like tourism but again the main industry is

Agriculture agriculture is so important to the province of Alberta so it it’s it’s the focus on that I think is where they’re trying to shift by talking about uh lands that are welldeveloped for irrigation and I think that’s essentially where they’re going to be focusing a lot of

Their attention going forward but again this is module a of the of the regulation and the announcement that’s come out so curious to see what the next module is going to look like yeah phase two will reconvene at that point and and discuss it I appreciate all of you

Making the time for a great discussion our front bench s selvam Gary Mar Carl bong and Mao Walsh

The Front Bench weighs in on the political fallout over Alberta restricting renewable energy projects.

Subscribe to CTV News to watch more videos:

Connect with CTV News:
For live updates and latest headlines visit:
For breaking news, fast, download the CTV News App:
Must-watch stories and full programs at

CTV News on TikTok:
CTV News on X (formerly Twitter):
CTV News on Reddit:
CTV News on LinkedIn:

—
CTV News is Canada’s most-watched news organization both locally and nationally, and has a network of national, international, and local news operations.

Reference