'Like coming home': Smith addresses her former lobby group at Calgary event

Danielle Smith speaks at a sold-out event for the Alberta Enterprise Group on March 2, 2023.

Premier Danielle Smith says speaking to members of her former lobby group on Thursday felt "very much like coming home."

She made the comment to a sold-out crowd at a Alberta Enterprise Group (AEG) event held at The Ranchmen's Club in Calgary.

Smith first registered as a lobbyist for the AEG in June 2019. Then, in April 2021, she was appointed president.

She last renewed her lobbying status for the group in January 2022. Ten months later, Smith was premier.

AEG bills itself as "Alberta's most influential business organization" and services about 100 companies.

Members range from oilsands giant Syncrude to the Oilers Entertainment Group, the company behind the Edmonton Oilers NHL team. It also includes firms from health care, transportation, construction, energy, law and finance. 

In her keynote address on Thursday, Smith thanked AEG members for helping Alberta recover from "all the economic turmoil" the province been through the past few years.

"I want to thank you all for being a group of leaders in your communities who believe in Alberta, believe in what you’re doing, and are supporting the growth we brag about and are so proud of.

"Your dedication and perseverance have once again made Alberta the leader in economic growth in Canada." 

The AEG's registry lists more than a dozen pages of issues Smith lobbied the government on during her years with the business group.

They include a "free enterprise approach to delivering public services such as health spending accounts and vouchers in child care."

Smith advocated a government-run “concierge” service for large development projects. She argued for a “streamlined model” to assess rural property taxes on roads and pipelines for the oilpatch.

Smith lobbied for charter schools, which received $42 million over the next three years in the province’s recently released budget.

She also held repeated meetings on the so-called RStar program, which gives energy companies tax breaks on their royalties if they met their legal obligations and clean up their abandoned wells.

On Feb. 8, Smith’s UCP government announced it would be moving ahead with the pilot, now called the Liability Management Incentive Program. On Feb. 22, Energy Minister Peter Guthrie clarified the government is in consultation with landowners, Indigenous groups and industry to design a rehabilitation pilot program to expeditiously clean up these pre-1980 inactive well sites.

He said the consultation process will take several months to complete, after which the cabinet and government caucus will consider the feedback provided and make a final decision on whether and how to proceed with the program.

When Tuesday’s budget was released it listed "liability management" as a key priority for both Alberta Energy and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas but set no money for the program.

Finance Minister Travis Toews said the government will be “consulting with Albertans.”

Smith said during her speech on Thursday that she's still drawn to AEG's passion to "being part of a community of Alberta business leaders who believe in driving change and building a brighter, more prosperous future for all Albertans."

Smith said she is a "free enterprise conservative" that sees the government’s role as creating a "positive and supportive environment for economic growth."

"That partnership between government and the private sector is reinforced with every government investment, every cut to red tape, every job program, and every time we stand up against federal interference in our economy."

Thursday's event was closed to the media and the premier was not made available for questions following her remarks.

- With files from Bob Webber, The Canadian Press