‘An urgent need’: Alberta cabinet minister says Bill C-5 needed to fast track nation building projects

Edmonton Centre MP Eleanor Olszewski speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about Bill C-5 and more on Alberta Primetime.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Let’s start on Bill C-5. Why rush it through before rising for the summer? Especially considering the degree of opposition from Indigenous groups and environmental groups?

Eleanor Olszewski: I would start off by saying that there is an imperative to building projects, Canadian projects, national projects. It’s an imperative in terms of national security and in terms of our economy as well. The prime minister and cabinet understand that. There was, in my view, and in the view of many, quite an urgent need to get the legislation in place quickly so that we can get nation building projects moving.

MH: Given the pressure that is building on your government to get many of those nation building projects underway, a lot of the loudest voices are here in Alberta.

How do you respond to the Albertans that say pipelines, energy corridors, need to be at the top of the list?

EO: I would respond very favourably to that. In fact, I met a number of energy leaders at a roundtable in Calgary a few weeks ago with the prime minister and others and they were very excited to hear that we were moving forward with this legislation.

It means a lot in terms of economic predictability, in terms of smoothing over the uncertainty, not just from the U.S. tariffs, but all of the uncertainty that surrounds the tariffs. The indirect result of uncertainty as well. That really is a hamper on investment in this province. So they were quite excited to have this bill move ahead.

MH: You mentioned Calgary during the G7 Summit. We saw you on the tarmac greeting many of the leaders. At the same time, you were shoulder to shoulder with Premier Danielle Smith.

Where do things stand in building new relations with the Alberta government, especially considering your portfolio responsibilities now in the Carney cabinet?

EO: I think that relationship is in a very good place. I’ve had, through the emergency management side of things, the opportunity to have a number of discussions with Mike Ellis and he’s the deputy premier but also my counterpart in terms of emergency management in Alberta.

I also had the opportunity to spend quite a few hours of time, as you mentioned, on the tarmac with Premier Smith and I think that was a really good use of time, in terms of building a relationship with her. We had some really constructive discussions and some constructive discussions with the mayor of Calgary, who was also on the tarmac.

All of those things bode really well for the federal relationship with Alberta. Certainly from my perspective I consider it fundamental to have a cooperative and collaborative relationship with the province. I’m this province’s voice in cabinet as well and that’s a responsibility that I take very seriously.

MH: You bring up deputy premier Mike Ellis. You’ve very suddenly landed in cabinet with a very important portfolio at a time of year where a lot of provinces are struggling. There are growing calls for creation of a national fire service. Where does that sit on the priorities list?

EO: That’s actually a number one priority. What I learned over the last number of weeks is there are indeed some gaps in how we deliver emergency management and there’s room for some changes. Certainly from my perspective, the safety of Canadians is absolutely top of mind, a top priority.

Myself and my department, we’ll be looking at changes we can make which will include considering whether or not there should be a national strategy, and if so, what would that look like?

Does it cover how we deal with firefighters and bringing over international firefighters? Does it cover provision of equipment such as water bombers? There’s a lot of work to do in the next few months and I’m optimistic that by August we’ll have a plan for making some changes to the Emergency Management Protocol.

MH: The other half of your cabinet portfolio, community resilience. What are you diving into there and how does that impact Alberta?

EO: Just with respect to community resilience in general. It’s basically making sure that we deal with wildfires and other emergency incidents by preparing for them properly. So by mitigating, by taking steps to make sure that we can keep communities safe.

That might be something like in the case of a town that has only one access road, and in the case where there might be a fire on both sides of that road. It’s thinking about what we can do in advance to make sure that people in that community are protected.

That might mean a different access road leading to a field where we can evacuate people from a small airstrip. It might mean things like ensuring that building codes are appropriate given the situation.

With respect to wildfires and other emergencies, it might mean using different kinds of shingles for example, in certain kinds of communities. It might mean having a proper plan for evacuating, especially remote communities. That was one of the most difficult things that we did, certainly in the province of Manitoba, is evacuate First Nations peoples from very small communities that don’t have road access, that have a very tiny airstrip, and you can’t land a Hercules to evacuate people. So you’re bringing helicopters in and moving people out a few at a time. This is the kind of thing that we deal with in terms of emergency management.

MH: In the span of a number of weeks you’ve gone from running to be an MP, to landing in a very key portfolio in the Carney cabinet. What does the road forward look like?

EO: It looks busy, I can tell you that. I’m just remembering having a discussion with you, it seems like a few short weeks ago, and I think I had my Canada Strong t-shirt on and a jacket. To your point, things have changed so much for me, and the road ahead is very optimistic.

I am very proud indeed to be part of this government. I’m very proud to be a voice for my province and for my city and for my riding. Although this moment in time has a lot of challenges, it’s also going to provide us with many economic opportunities, opportunities to strengthen relations with other countries and to reduce our dependence on the United States.