Influence: Advocacy that helps your business

Your Chamber briefs new NDP cabinet on business priorities

Taking your priorities to the new government right away, your Calgary Chamber was invited to brief the government's new cabinet on Thursday, May 28th.

It was a valuable opportunity for Chamber President and CEO Adam Legge (centre) along with Chamber Board Chair Rob Hawley (right) and Director of policy, research and government relations Justin Smith, to introduce the mission and mandate of our organization to finance minister Joe Ceci (left) and the rest of the newly-elected cabinet, including Premier Notley. 

We had a productive and informative discussion where we made clear the key challenges facing the business community, and the ways in which proactive government policy can support the Alberta economy and drive future growth.

A sign of your influence at work and the clear relevance of Chamber membership, we left the room with plenty of requests for follow-up and future engagement. Through your Chamber membership, you now have an open door to connect with the provincial government.

Op-ed: Climate policy is too important to get wrong

Last week Steve Williams, president and CEO of Suncor Energy along with Justin Smith, director of policy, research and government relations at the Calgary Chamber and Chris Ragan, the chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission and professor of economics at McGill University, spoke out in favour of provincial carbon pricing.

An effective price on carbon — one that results in meaningful GHG reductions and helps to drive low-carbon innovation — would help Alberta’s oilpatch at a time when clean energy is increasingly becoming a global priority. Such a policy would improve the chances for new pipeline construction and also help to secure Alberta’s long-term position as a supplier to the global oil market.

There is much work to do in Alberta in designing a carbon-pricing policy that appropriately balances the needs of a competitive economy with the need to reduce GHG emissions. Doing nothing should not be an option, but neither should producing a rushed and botched policy. 

It has taken years for Alberta to arrive at this juncture where significant climate policy is possible; taking a few months more to get it right should be an easy choice.