July Update

Here’s your weekly news recap. Have a great weekend! -Your United Conservative Team

Rick Bell writes about Premier Smith delivering a hard No at the First Ministers meeting to anyone who thinks taxing or cutting off Alberta oil to the United States is a smart trade war tactic, calling it an emotional response that would hurt Canada far more than it hurts the Americans. The Premier was blunt that threatening America’s energy security invites retaliation far worse than anything Canada can dish out, and she will fight any attempt to use Alberta oil as a political pawn every step of the way. Naheed Nenshi disagrees with her, preferring Albertans lose their jobs and livelihoods to score political points. Read more.

ATCO has received the green light to build the $2.9 billion Yellowhead Pipeline, a 235-kilometre natural gas line running from Peers to Fort Saskatchewan that will deliver more than one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and boost Alberta’s energy capacity by over 10 per cent. With shovels in the ground immediately and 2,000 crew members ramping up by October, the project is expected to add $3.9 billion to Alberta’s GDP while actually lowering energy costs for residential customers. This is exactly the kind of investment that flows into a province that keeps taxes low, cuts red tape, and has a Premier who fights every day to keep Alberta open for business. Read more.

While in Charlottetown for the First Ministers Meeting this week, Premier Smith sat down with CBC’s David Cochrane to make the case for Alberta’s approach to energy and trade with the United States. Watch here.

Mental Health and Addiction Minister Rick Wilson announced a $30 million investment in Edmonton to deliver 400 new recovery beds, expanded outreach and stabilization services, and a new high-tech stabilization centre at Edmonton police headquarters to connect people in crisis directly to care. A new 105-bed facility for youth opens late fall, giving young Albertans up to 90 days of treatment, as our government continues building out the Alberta Recovery Model to get people from crisis to stability to recovery. Read more.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis shared good news this week that Alberta’s Crime Severity Index dropped 6.6 per cent in 2025 and violent crime fell 5.5 per cent, proof that our government’s investment in law enforcement and public safety is working. Read more.

Alberta’s physician count has hit a record high of 14,156 after a nearly 10 per cent jump in the past year, the largest year-over-year increase on record, with every health zone across the province seeing growth in both family medicine and specialist care. Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange and Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Justin Wright credited our government’s recruitment and retention investments, backed by a $7.7 billion commitment to physician training and compensation in Budget 2026. Read more.

Heather Exner-Pirot of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute writes in the National Post this week that cutting off oil exports to spite the Americans would devastate Canada far more than it would hurt the United States, with eastern Canada losing access to its own energy supply and the country falling into recession. Her argument aligns with Premier Smith’s hard No at the First Ministers Meeting this week, making the case that Canada’s real advantage is its reputation as a trustworthy energy supplier, and that the path forward is diversifying to new markets rather than weaponizing our resources. Read more.

Rob Breakenridge writes in the National Post that Naheed Nenshi’s grovelling apology for having his photo taken with the Israeli ambassador reveals far more about his judgment and who is really pulling the strings in the Alberta NDP than it does about his views on the Middle East. Breakenridge makes the case that despite Nenshi’s efforts to distance himself from federal NDP boss Avi Lewis and the far left, the apology makes clear there is no distance at all, and that the man who wants to be Alberta’s next premier is simply falling in line with the most radical voices in his party. Read more.

Naheed Nenshi refused to rule out imposing an export tax on Alberta oil and gas headed to the United States, a move that would put hundreds of thousands of Albertans out of work and devastate the province’s entire energy industry. Chief Government Whip Brandon Lunty called it out for what it is, saying Nenshi would happily sell Alberta out for a gold star from the economically illiterate left, while Premier Smith continues to stand up for Alberta workers and our energy sector at every turn. With Nenshi aligned with federal NDP boss Avi Lewis , who wants to phase out all fossil fuels, Albertans know exactly what an NDP government would mean for their jobs and their province. Read more.

Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen announced a major milestone in the Deerfoot Trail improvements project, with the new Ivor Strong Bridge set to open July 27 and carry all southbound traffic while rehabilitation work begins on the original structure. Once both bridges are fully operational, Calgarians will benefit from four lanes in each direction over the Bow River, and when the full project wraps up next year, commuters can expect to save up to 22 per cent on their evening drive time, amounting to roughly 900,000 hours of saved commute time each year. Read more.

David Knight Legg writes in the Financial Post that Meta’s $13 billion data centre investment was no accident, contrasting Alberta’s years of deliberate policy work with New York State’s decision to impose a blanket moratorium on new data centres that has already blocked or delayed more than US$60 billion in investment across the United States. Knight Legg argues that Alberta won the global race for data infrastructure by doing the hard work first, cutting taxes, building a regulatory fast-track, and creating a bring-your-own-power model that lets developers fund their own generation, while other jurisdictions are still figuring out what they want to be. Read more.

Trans Mountain CEO Mark Maki told CTV News this week that he is confident the new West Coast Oil Pipeline will be built, pointing to the existing Trans Mountain system as proof of concept and noting that regulatory reforms and economies of scale should make this new pipeline more competitive to build. Maki called the financial case for the new pipeline “very, very compelling,” noting that Trans Mountain paid $1.7 billion in dividends and interest to the federal treasury last year alone, with global demand from the United States, China, Korea, Japan, and India only growing stronger. Read more.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally is pushing other provinces to tear down their protectionist barriers to interprovincial alcohol trade, calling on jurisdictions like British Columbia and Ontario to take a page out of Alberta’s playbook where it takes just three weeks for out-of-province producers to get their products on shelves. With nine provinces signing a direct-to-consumer alcohol deal this week, Nally says now is the time to make it just as easy for Alberta breweries and distilleries to get their products onto shelves across the country. Read more.

Everything we’re fighting for in Alberta is only possible because of you. When you give, even just $5, you put fuel in the tank for our team to keep standing up for Alberta. We can’t do it without you. Please give today.

— West Yellowhead Constituency Association