EDMONTON, Alberta: The newly-elected United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader, Jason Kenney, on Monday unveiled his party’s new Caucus Leadership Team, which he said will stand up for Alberta against the NDP Government and the growing attacks on the province’s economy and resources.
Kenney announced the appointment of Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Aheer as Deputy Leader and Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon as the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislature and the Opposition House Leader. Nixon will be responsible for leading the efforts of the UCP Caucus in the Legislature until Kenney is able to enter the Legislature.
Kenney also announced Calgary-Hays MLA Ric McIver as Chief Whip, Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill as Deputy Whip, and Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt as Deputy House Leader.
“Today is a new day in Alberta politics. We have a strong, United Conservative Party Caucus ready to stand up for Albertans who feel the pain of the disastrous economic policies of the Alberta NDP and the Trudeau Liberals.” said Kenney. “While the NDP refuses to stand up and fight for our province against the Trudeau Government, Albertans can rest assured our United Conservative Party Caucus will fight for them each and every day.”
Kenney added: “This talented Leadership team and our strong, united Caucus will focus on jobs and economic growth. We will be the voice of common sense in the Legislature.”
As part of the UCP’s continued effort to hold the Trudeau government accountable to Albertans, the UCP Caucus will seek unanimous consent to introduce a motion calling on the NDP to immediately respond to Trudeau’s use of the National Energy Board to kill pipeline projects, like TransCanada’s Energy East, through regulatory overburden. In September, TransCanada announced a 30-day suspension of their Energy East application, citing “recent changes announced by the NEB.” Following that, TransCanada announced that they had terminated their application entirely.
The motion will read:
“Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to immediately demand that the Government of Canada introduce amendments to the National Energy Board Act that would prohibit the Board from considering upstream and downstream emissions in pipeline approval assessments.”