United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney was sworn in Tuesday as the 18th premier of Canada’s largest crude-producing province, Alberta, and named a cabinet he says will go to bat for the energy sector, Kallanish Energy reports.
Kenney, a former conservative federal cabinet minister, won the election in a landslide victory against Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party after promising to reverse years of economic stagnation and decline.
“We will focus relentlessly on creating good jobs, growing the economy and building pipelines west, east and south to get our products to market and secure full value for our resources and future prosperity,” Kenney said at the swearing-in ceremony in the provincial capital of Edmonton, Reuters reported.
Alberta is home to Canada’s oil sands deposits, but has struggled with a mediocre economy since the 2014-15 global oil price plummet, as well as steep discounts on its crude because of congestion on oil export pipelines.
Among Kenney’s cabinet is Sonya Savage, who used to work for pipeline giant Enbridge, as energy minister.
Kenney has pledged to challenge his fellow Canadian politicians –include Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — he says take Alberta’s oil and gas industry for granted.
The Alberta legislature convenes for the first time in May and Kenney has said its first order of business will be scrapping the province’s carbon tax, a move that promises to put the province at odds with Ottawa.
Last year, Notley’s government imposed temporary oil production cuts to ease a buildup of crude in Alberta storage tanks and boost prices, and also signed $3 billion in contracts to start shipping crude by rail.
Kenney is expected to keep curtailments in place, but has said he’ll cancel the rail contracts.
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