Alberta intends to join TC Energy in their $15 billion North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Chapter 11 claim against the United States over the Keystone XL pipeline cancellation, according to a July 7, 2021 Financial Post.
By September 2021, during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as Alberta's health system was overwhelmed, Premier Kenney faced criticism from all sides including from the official opposition and some MLAs those in the UCP caucus—who allegedly challenged his leadership.
[37] According to a 2022 investigative report by journalists Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell and based on interviews with UCP staffers, both current and former, the efforts made by the office of the premier to "stymie transparency and accountability...are unlike anything they have seen in their many combined years working for other governments".
"[42] In December 2019, the federal government accepted Kenney's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Bill 19 legislation—a provincial carbon tax on industrial emitters—which helps Canada reach its Paris Agreement goals.
"[26] In an October 9, 2019 press release, Minister Savage announced the appointment of former journalist and lobbyist Tom Olsen as CEO and managing director of the war room which will be called the Canadian Energy Centre Limited (CECL).
[63] Premier Kenney's press secretary Christine Myatt said that keeping CECL's internal operations secret is a "tactical and/or strategic advantage to the very foreign-funded special interests the CEC is looking to counter.
[65][64] A December 14 Medicine Hat News opinion piece,[66] that was critical of the CEC, said that the centre was not "subject to freedom-of-information searches and could be used to stifle legitimate dissent and commentary on the oil and gas industry."
"[79] The 64-page report made 25 recommendations that would, if implemented remove some control from the federal government, which includes pushing for changes to the Fiscal Stabilization Program that respond to concerns that Albertans are now "receiving a $2.4 billion equalization rebate."
"[104] In March 2020, Premier Kenney created the twelve member Economic Recovery Council composed of policy and industry experts, to advise the government in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy price crash.
Stephen Harper, former Prime Minister of Canada, Morgan Construction and Environmental's Peter Kiss, ATCO's Nancy Southern, ARC Financial's Mac Van Wielingen, and Zainul Mawji, who is on the executive board of Telus Corporation.
"[28] In an October 30 open letter to all members of the Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Christine Molnar, AMA director, said that the "bill effectively gives government the power of pre-approval to cancel any physician services agreement without recourse.
"[95] The increased energy royalties depends heavily on the success of the UCP's corporate tax rate cuts to spur revenue growth through an infusion of capital from private investment and the resulting expansion in both "oil production and pipeline capacity.
"[95] David Taras, a political scientist from Mount Royal University said that this budget signaled that the UCP was "not blinking"—They are "sticking with [their game plan] the "policy of cuts and deficit reduction in the face of what appears to be a province that's bleeding jobs.
[123] According to Mount Royal University's political science professor, Duane Bratt, factors influencing the downgrade include the UCP's budget plan that led to an increase in the deficit and concerns about labour unrest with thousands of public sector jobs set to be eliminated.
[123] Moody's report said that Alberta's economy's "structural weakness" lies in its concentration and dependency on non-renewable resources (NNRs) combined with a "lack of sufficient pipeline capacity to transport oil efficiently," "no near-term expectation of a significant rebound in oil-related investments,"[123] and "revenue pressures related to UCP cuts to corporate tax rates.
"[125] The October 9, 2020 Moody's Investor Service report downgraded Alberta's credit rating to Aa3 (stable) reflecting "outsized deficits" resulting from the "dual impact of continued low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic".
[138] The New York Times reported that "[d]espite plunging oil prices" in March", Kenney said the "province's resource-dependent economy could not afford for Keystone XL to be delayed until after the coronavirus pandemic and a global economic downturn have passed.
[134] According to a March 31, 2020 article in The New York Times, because of Kenney, Russ Girling, TC Energy CEO, announced that construction of its $8-billion US Keystone XL oil sands pipeline's Canada-United States border crossing, in rural northeast Montana, would begin in April in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[158] Leighton Grey resigned from the PCNC in June 2020, after a CBC investigation revealed his "recent comparison of a future COVID-19 vaccine to Auschwitz tattoos and posting of a video that called Black Lives Matter a "leftist lie" controlled by a Jewish philanthropist.
[159] Kaycee Madu, who was named as Minister of Justice and Solicitor General of Alberta on August 25, 2020, said in a statement in early October, that according to the Fair Deal Panel, Albertans want a provincial police to replace the RCMP.
[160] In response to the recommendation of the Fair Deal Panel, the UCP administration hired the consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to undertake a C$2 million feasibility study of a potential transition towards a provincial police force.
[194] In May 2019, the UCP government created a two-tier minimum wage which allowed businesses to pay teen students $13 an hour starting on June 26, 2019, which Kenney had promised in March as part of his election campaign.
[196] According to a September 12 Calgary Herald based on a Postmedia report, a senior source within the CSS department—who spoke on the "condition of anonymity"—confirmed that there was a "push to potentially make some cuts” to Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), that 69,785 depend on.
"[216] On July 21, 2020, Education Minister, Adriana LaGrange and Premier Kenney announced that schools "will open in September at near-normal operations with protections in place to limit the spread of the virus, including extra cleaning, hand sanitization and reorganizing classrooms to allow for more space.
"[218] On July 24, 2020, Premier Kenney retweeted that he found Danielle Smith's Calgary Herald opinion piece entitled "Let's get kids back to class and protect those really at risk", an interesting perspective.
Jamie Huckabay, Kenney's chief of staff's UK Christmas vacation, as well as that of MLA for Grande Prairie, Tracy Allard, who as Alberta's Municipal Affairs Minister is also responsible for emergency preparedness, and therefore ultimately for the rollout of the vaccine.
Other controversial actions taken by the UCP include, "cutting funding for post-secondary institutions while lifting the tuition cap"; "reducing funding to municipalities; "imposing unilateral changes to the way doctors bill the province; making clear it wants freezes or cuts to government employees' pay when collective agreements come up for negotiation this spring; spending $30 million per year on a war room now called the Canadian Energy Centre; making its first bill of the new sitting one that targets those who disrupt critical infrastructure with severe penalties; and "fully or partially closing 20 provincial parks and seeking "partnerships" for 164 more.
[1][246] Earlier Angus Reid polling reports said that, "Albertans have grown increasingly critical" of Premier Kenney and the UCP "government's response to the coronavirus, and the province's finances are in historically poor shape with oil revenues plummeting and pandemic-related economic shocks persisting.
[250] A CBC News-Road Ahead survey led by Pollster Janet Brown completed by June 1, 2020, found that most Albertans approved the federal, provincial and municipal governments' responses to the pandemic.
[255] According to a September 21 Western Standard article, Mullan called on Kenney to resign as immediately as leader of the party he had founded 4 years ago in response to concerns raised by the UCP membership "over the last several months".