Kenney held a press conference Monday to announce the United Conservative government’s new program — dubbed “Alberta is Calling” — to hire skilled workers with a marketing campaign touting the province’s lower taxes, affordability housing, shorter commutes and proximity to the Rockies. The $2.6 million effort is to include ads on social media, radio and posters in high-traffic areas.
Read more: Alberta reaches 4.9% unemployment rate, on par with Canada
“What did the Albertan say to the Vancouverite? You’re hired,” reads one of the screens. “It’s mountain time somewhere,” reads one addressed to the Greater Toronto Area. Story continues below ad “Alberta has come back in a big way, but one of the biggest challenges to sustaining this amazing growth is having enough people to fill the jobs that are being created,” Kenney said. “As far as problems go, it’s a very good thing to have.” 1:35 Jobless rate drops in Alberta Unemployment rate drops in Alberta – July 8, 2022 The campaign launch comes after Kenney said on his weekend radio show that a key platform promise by one of the candidates to succeed him as leader and prime minister was “crazy”. Candidate Danielle Smith said if she wins the leadership, she will introduce a bill this fall to give Alberta the power to ignore federal laws and court rulings deemed not in the province’s best interests. Legal scholars say such a bill would be illegal, unenforceable and a dangerous rejection of respect for the rule of law. Story continues below ad
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“A government or legislature that continued this de facto plan for secession would end the tremendous economic momentum in this province,” Kenney said. Kenney said he’s confident that even if the legislature passed the law, the lieutenant governor would refuse to give it royal assent and Alberta would be “ridiculous.” Smith blasted Kenney in a statement Sunday for “meddling” in the leadership contest, saying his comments were “ill-informed and disrespectful to a large and growing majority of UCP members who support this important initiative.”
Read more: Jason Kenney calls sovereignty act backed by UCP candidates ‘nuts’
Kenney said Monday that he is not interfering in the leadership campaign, but simply restating his position on an important public policy issue. “This government was elected with a commitment to create jobs, grow the economy and build pipelines,” he said. “This so-called act of sovereignty would be a body blow to all three of those things.” 1:49 New strategy pushes Alberta to declare sovereignty within Canada New strategy pushes Alberta to declare sovereignty within Canada – September 28, 2021 Kenney said the proposed act goes against what the provincial government was elected to do by driving away investment and forcing people to leave, as well as hurting the campaign to bring people to Alberta. Story continues below ad “Here we are starting a campaign for Canadians to move to another part of Canada,” he said. “If Alberta effectively decided to launch a separatist plan, I think that would automatically exclude a lot of Canadians.
Read more: Part-time employment is growing in Alberta, but the province is seeing a decline in full-time jobs
“Instead, instead of being able to attract people, we would start hemorrhaging people.” He said this is not theoretical because of what happened in Quebec in 1976, when René Levesque and the Parti Quebecois were elected on a separatist platform. “Quebec overnight started hemorrhaging people, money and investment,” Kenney said. Kenney also had a message for Albertans worried about a plan to attract more workers — most Albertans have come from other parts of Canada or the world, and the new workers would benefit the province. Kenney said he understands some may feel outraged. “I think we are welcome, but sometimes I hear the complaint: ‘I can’t find a job. Why are you giving us our jobs?’ I’ll tell you, there are a lot of jobs available in Alberta right now.” 📢👩🏭👩⚕️👨💼👨🎨👩🔬👩🍳👩💻 pic.twitter.com/F5wpR4Km1Z — Jason Kenney 🇺🇦 (@jkenney) August 15, 2022 Story continues below ad ☎️ pic.twitter.com/ZaVi2WmbYp — Jason Copping (@JasonCoppingAB) August 15, 2022 Related News © 2022 The Canadian Press
