So you might remember that I made Calgary the very first stop in my leadership campaignback in 2012. And since then – I looked it up – I've actually been back in Calgary 14 times overthe years and (parenthesis: just since becoming Prime Minister, I've actually made 8 trips toAlberta). And on one of those trips a few years ago at the Calgary Petroleum Club, I made myfeelings about Calgary very clear. I said: this place is important – Calgary, Alberta and all ofWestern Canada. It's important now, and it will be even more important in the future.
And here we are, three years later. A lot has changed. I have a different job and differentresponsibilities. Many of you have changed jobs as well. Too often, not as a matter of choice,but as a matter of economic necessity. I'll come back to that in a moment.
But what hasn't changed for me since then and what I hope hasn't changed for you either is aconviction that this city matters. What happens in Calgary is important. It's important toAlberta and to all of Canada. And I could talk about economic indicators, but measures like thatdon't fully capture what's really important: how people are feeling.
I know that the last couple of years have been really tough on Calgary. The oil price shock hitmarkets and companies hard all over the world, but here in Calgary, it hit families even harder. Iknow that our MPs, Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang and others have been working really hard tomake sure that Calgary is always on top of mind in Ottawa. And part of that, as I've said, hasbeen keeping our government connected to how families are faring – to how people are doing.
I had a chance when I was back here in late March for an EI announcement to sit down andchat with a number of Calgarians who were struggling. These were people young and not soyoung. And I took away two things from that meeting. First, that Calgarians aren't looking for ahandout. All they want is a real and fair chance to succeed. An opportunity to supportthemselves and their families. And second, that the challenges that Calgary has been facinghave been felt beyond the oil and gas sector. They've hit the whole community hard.
Knowing this, knowing how difficult the last couple of years have been for Calgary and forAlberta as a whole, we've taken some significant steps to help. As Naheed pointed out, theseinclude infrastructure investments to help Albertans get back to work and to help strengthenand grow the provincial and national economies. Here in Calgary, we're contributing morethan $750 million in transformational projects, projects like the Green Line LRT, and theSouthwest Calgary Ring Road, something that as you know has been in the works since the70s. For local businesses like yours, better transit and better highways mean better and fasteraccess to markets. For Calgary families, it means that they'll be able to get home sooner at theend of a long day, whether they're coming from work or school or the rink. And, by the way,who better to get that done than a proud Albertan who came here as a young man, started outas a bus driver and is now building transit systems all across Canada, our Minister ofInfrastructure, Amarjeet Sohi? Thank you, Amarjeet, for all the hard work you're doing.
And most critically, these infrastructure investments will create good, well-paying jobs forCalgary's middle class and for those working hard to join it. But we know that government canonly do so much. For Calgary to succeed, the energy sector needs to be given a real chance tosucceed. So just a few weeks ago, our government approved both the Trans Mountain Pipelineexpansion and the Line Three replacement project. Together, these two projects will create22,000 new jobs, mostly in the trades. And as I said in making the announcement, theseapprovals are a major win for Canadian workers, for Canadian families, and for the Canadianeconomy. They will give much needed hope to thousands of hardworking people in Alberta'sconventional energy sector who have suffered a great deal in the past few years. They will helpprovide the growth in resources we need to spur Canada's clean energy transition, and theywill prove to Canada and to the world that responsible resource development can go hand-in-hand with strong environmental protection. After all, it was decisive federal and provincialleadership on confronting climate change that made these approvals possible.
As I said at the time, and I'll say it again today, pipelines won't solve all of our economicproblems. That's impossible. We're reasonable people, we agree that the oil and natural gasindustries are important, but they are not all there is to the economy. At the same time, thedevelopment of pipelines done responsibly and carefully is not an environmental disaster in andof itself.
You see, that way of thinking – that we have to choose between growing the economy andprotecting the environment – simply doesn't work. Not anymore. And Canadians understandthat. Canadians don't want economic growth at any cost, nor do they want an environmentalstrategy that treats jobs and growth as an afterthought. What they voted for last fall andwhat our government has been working very hard ever since to deliver is leadership that getsthe job done.
I'm talking about the important work of opening up markets abroad for Canadian resources andthen working with business, other orders of government, indigenous partners and civil societyto find responsible and sustainable ways of getting those resources to markets. And that's noteasily done and it doesn't happen overnight, but when you have the political will, when you'recommitted to having some tough conversations and making some difficult decisions, you canmake real progress on both the economy and the environment.
And the secret to getting the job done is one well-known to all Albertans: rolling up yoursleeves and getting to work. We will continue to work hard to build an economy that works formore Canadians while also protecting the environment, so that future generations can inherita cleaner, more prosperous country. We will do it because we know that both are possible andwe'll do it because we believe in Albertan and we believe…we believe in Alberta and we believe inAlbertans.
Thank you, friends. Thank you very much.