Hearing firsthand, without an intermediary, was the goal of Calgary Economic Development’s (CED) fireside chat with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The fireside chat was the latest in a series of high-profile conversations held by Calgary Economic Development’s President and CEO, including those with the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, and the Ambassador of the European Union to Canada, Dr. Melita Gabrič.

Parry said that what ‘Team Calgary’—CED’s corporate partnership program members—wanted is a first-hand, unskewed account of what the policy goals of the Premier have been.

“Having her just be able to come up and explain the position and get us some of the details to me goes a long way with that. It was really meant to be, to understand what’s her position, where are they going, what’s the government trying to do, and how do we make sure we’re going the same direction,” he said.

Among the top takeaways from the chat, said Parry, was that the Government of Alberta remains committed to innovation, commitment to economic diversification, and an understanding of the business landscape. Both internally within the province and abroad.

“I think from a Calgary perspective, you heard the investments they’ve made in the city: the Event Center investment, and infrastructure investment, which is crucial for the city,” Parry said.

“I think she truly has the vision where she sees this province being a global destination for talent, companies, capital and talent, which is what our mandate really is.”

Although Parry said that not everyone in the audience necessarily would agree with the direction that the government was taking on key policy issues, it was important to hear from the Premier.

“From the quick chats that I had [after the fireside chat], some people was that they appreciated what she said. And as much as some people may not agree with some of the policies, they came back and said ‘you know what, I don’t think I disagree with a lot of stuff she said in the way she said it.'”

Global issues discussed during fireside chat

Among the topics discussed by Premier Smith with the CED audience were the diversification of the economy and growth of the energy, agriculture, and technology sectors.

“The BMO Center is, really I don’t even know, we’ll have to look back in hindsight to see the extraordinary difference that it made for Calgary. But it sounds to me like they are already fully subscribed, and so the only thing we need is some more hotel rooms in order to be able to make sure that that we have enough places for people to stay when they come here.”

Listen to the full conversation between Premier Smith and Brad Parry on the role of international trade and Alberta’s economy.

Other topics included the perceived challenges of meeting 2035 climate goals set forth by the Government of Canada, and opportunities for energy and development partnerships between Alberta and the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Among those issues, Premier Smith said, was becoming more aligned with the United States and other friendly nations to advance Alberta and Canada’s primary trade interests in areas like oil and gas and hydrogen.

“I think on the hydrogen economy, we have a lot in common no matter who is down there. So I think there might be more opportunity as well for us to develop that out,” she said.

“If it goes the other way, and Trump is back in the White House… I know that the perspective is that the Republicans are anti-trade and that’s not what it is. It’s basically, if I could sum it up, ‘buy as much stuff from us as we buy from you.’ That’s the that’s the Trump philosophy on trade. He does not want American to be taken advantage of, and the good news is Canada and the US have pretty balanced trade.”

Premier Smith also addressed issues regarding the growth of the Alberta Heritage Fund and potential for pension plans, saying that the province’s goal of a $250 billion provincial sovereign wealth fund by 2050 meant the potential for investment into Alberta companies—but that would not extend to pension savings in the same policy way due to the need to mitigate risk.

“We’ll have grown in $8 billion in the time that we’ve been elected, and it’s going to go grow higher because the one thing we needed to do is to just stop siphoning off the investment income. That was the first decision that we made, and all of the investment income stays in the fund,” she said.

“If we start managing it on true sovereign wealth fund principles so that we can come to the table with equal partners and get higher returns. Just doing that alone will grow it to $250 billion by 2050… we’re going to be unrolling a strategy in the fall based on sovereign wealth principles on how we manage that portion of our fund. You have to manage your pension assets in a very different way, but I think we can be a little more creative and how we manage our sovereign wealth assets.”

More cordial to the Government of Canada

Parry said that among the key takeaways from the talk, was the difference in language used by Premier Smith towards the Government of Canada.

“When you hear talk about the relationships with Minister Wilkinson, and the fact that he understands hydrogen and hydrogen is one of those opportunities for us in the future, the one thing that I loved what I heard today was that she said there’s more things going right than are going wrong,” Parry said.

“They’re actually having great conversations with our federal partners to figure out what is the right solution. So, I don’t think everybody understands that. I don’t think the public knows that. I think we always start with the negative and the combative side, but to hear firsthand that there’s actually good relationships and strong progress being made to me that that’s a positive sign.”

Premier Smith, during the chat, said that the province and the federal government had been able to find common cause on a number of issues around the use of hydrogen and small modular nuclear reactors to meet Canadians’ energy needs.

“If we can get hydrogen buses in Calgary and Edmonton who are providing this sort of the steady demand for the fuel, it’ll bring the prices down and then ultimately passenger vehicles will make sense to have here. So we’re very keen on advancing that idea,” the Premier said.

“Even Jonathan Wilkinson, he comes from the hydrogen industry, so that’s where we end up with some common cause. I think that’s part of the reason why the feds have invested with us and Dow Chemicals petrochemical as well as Air Products Net Zero hydrogen. I actually feel like we have been very fortunate to have as many areas that we’ve been able to work with the federal government as we have.”