Albertans were looking for change. And so I think that we're staying true to our principles by working to deliver on that change. And I think that is what people were looking for
I think Albertans are progressive and forward-looking and are very optimistic, and I think they've always embraced change. Now with the economy being the way it is, I think we need to acknowledge people are a bit nervous too.
I think that there's no question that, in Alberta as the price of oil continues to drop, that there are families ... that are worried about the instability that that brings to the economy. And so that has to be more and more front and centre in terms of the work that we do as a government.
In order to deal with the issues we're going to take a thoughtful, considered, intelligent approach to moving forward, we're going to do it with a great deal of consultation ... but to suggest you never change anything ever, ever, ever going forward I don't think is particularly responsible.
I'm not going to bargain in the media because I don't think that's appropriate.
Political debate is political debate and that's fine. That's healthy.
I think all of our ministers are relatively inexperienced. I'm relatively inexperienced. We're a six-month-old government.
The climate change plan set out a few days ago by federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair will get us there, which is why I strongly support it.
Our budget also reflects key components of our campaign. It's very much focused on stabilizing public services, restoring stability to public services and investing in job creation and economic diversification and, generally speaking, acting as a cushion during this economy, something fundamentally different than what the other parties proposed in the last election.
Our government is operating within an unprecedented revenue shortfall and that we have an obligation to all citizens of the province to manage our finances responsibly. And that's what we're going to do.
I think that the climate change policy and strategy that we have developed and that we have rolled out thus far is an example of incredibly high-quality work, incredible collaboration by an exceptionally large number of well-informed people.
We have endorsements of our plan from key leaders within the environmental movement. That doesn't mean that it includes the whole environmental movement.
Bill is about moving forward on a long overdue provision to protect vulnerable paid farm workers in Alberta to the same degree that they are protected in every other province in the country, and we feel confident that once people see how the bill actually applies to the regular family farm, they will see that a lot of the concerns were perhaps misplaced. And it's unfortunate that we created a situation that made people worry; that was not ever our intention.
Industry stakeholders have said to us, which we've heard loud and clear, as we move forward on the climate change discussions we need to do it with a clear eye on the fact that we are also having conversations around royalties and the two can't be separated.
What's really important to remember is that this type of legislation exists in one form or another in every other province in the country. The right to refuse unsafe work is a right that is enjoyed by every other farm worker, paid farm worker, in the country and every other paid worker in Alberta.
