Article content

By David MacLean

Re: “Premier stands by criticism of Tory record,” Sept. 16.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or MacLean: Alberta is an environmental leader, not an embarrassing cousin (with poll) Back to video

Many Albertans were rightfully insulted when Premier Rachel Notley described Alberta to a Global TV news reporter as the “embarrassing cousin that no one wants to talk about.”

The backlash was so strong and immediate, that the premier later made a point of speaking with media and explaining that her comments weren’t about Alberta or Albertans generally, but rather, they were about Alberta’s poor environmental performance.

One of her top priorities, apparently, is to set the stage for Albertans to be “genuinely proud” of Alberta’s environmental record. Hold on for just a second. Who’s to say Albertans aren’t already proud of our province’s environmental performance? And if they aren’t already, who’s to say they shouldn’t be?

Because when you look at Alberta’s environmental record and the policies that govern industry, we stack up favourably against jurisdictions around the world. An exhaustive study conducted by WorleyParsons in conjunction with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers compared Alberta’s (and by extension, Canada’s) environmental policies, laws and regulatory systems with those in nine other oil-producing jurisdictions.