Premier Danielle Smith on CCP Subversion: We Shouldn’t Be ‘Playing Into Our Own Demise’

[FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW] “I think we now have to make sure that we understand what an adversary China is, and make sure that we’re not playing into our own demise,” says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

She has taken a strong stance on the communist China threat, and she has also been going against the grain in Canada with her policies on energy, COVID mandates, the drug crisis, and “gender-affirming care.”

In this episode, I had a chance to do a deep dive with her about her thinking around these policies.

“I want Alberta to just be this bastion of freedom and liberty,” Ms. Smith says. “I want to make sure we preserve it.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jan Jekielek:
Premier Danielle Smith, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Premier Danielle Smith:
Nice to talk to you.

Mr. Jekielek:
Today, people don’t fully realize how rich in oil Alberta is. People call it the Texas of Canada. Recently, Canada signed onto these COP28 rules to diversify away from fossil fuels by the end of 2030. What does this mean for Alberta?

Premier Smith:
One of the things Americans might not know is that we have a different structure in Canada where the provinces own and control most of the natural resource wealth. About 80 percent of the resource wealth is owned by Alberta. We have a lot of decision-making power over our production levels and getting it to market. That is not necessarily at odds with the idea of reducing emissions.

We’re not transitioning out of oil and gas production. We are transitioning out of emissions. When we start thinking of ways that we can use natural gas differently, whether it’s with net zero petrochemicals production, or whether it is with hydrogen, or whether it is with ammonia, those are the kind of things that we’re looking at on the natural gas side.

Our heavy oil is highly valued because it can be turned into so many products. People may not know that a barrel of oil now produces 6,000 different products, including construction materials like asphalt or carbon nanofiber. As we start developing ways to decarbonize the production stream and find more and more uses for our product that is non-combustion, we can have both. We can increase production and also reduce emissions.

Mr. Jekielek:
How much oil is estimated to be in the Alberta oil sands?

Premier Smith:
It’s a massive amount. When I was down at CERAWeek in Houston, I felt like we had to reintroduce Alberta to the rest of the world. Often I hear that the Americans are worried about where they will get their next oil supply from. They talk about Iraq and Venezuela, because they also have heavy product. I just say, “We’ve already got the trade ties. We’ve already got the pipeline access. We are already the largest exporter to the Americans by a country mile. We export double the amount that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Mexico combined give to the United States.”

When I put it into context, we have a recoverable reserves number in Alberta of about 200 billion barrels. How big is that? It’s about five times larger than all of America’s recoverable reserves combined. We say, “We are here, we are friends, and we believe in fortress North America. We believe that we can help with energy security, with affordability, as well as reduce emissions.” We want to be the first option and we want to make sure that Americans look at us.

Mr. Jekielek:
Net zero is typically associated with this idea of degrowth, because the goals which are projected at the moment would require reduction in industrial production. Do you view it that way?

Premier Smith:
Absolutely not. When I look at what is happening in the world, we also have a dual obligation to ensure that every citizen has the same quality of life and standard of living as we do, and energy is essential to that. Having a robust, cheap supply of energy, as well as solid food security with a supply of low cost food, are the two essentials to any nation’s ability to grow. There are three to five billion people that need to be brought up to the standard of living that we enjoy in North America, and that’s going to be our real challenge.

How do we bring everybody up to be able to use more energy at the same time as reducing emissions? We simply can’t do that with wind and solar and batteries. We have to use every single type of fuel in order to be able to do that. If we’re serious about ending global poverty, we should be talking in those terms. We should be talking in terms of emissions reduction, not ending industrial development.

Mr. Jekielek:
You were against the mandates related to various Covid policies, specifically vaccine mandates. What is your overall vision and why were the mandates something you were willing to become an outlier on?

Premier Smith:
I believe in free choice in all things. Medical choice and what you put into your body has got to be essential. You shouldn’t have governments dictating that. Personally, I am vaccinated. But there are others who, for a variety of reasons, have made different choices. We need to trust that people, in combination with a discussion with their doctor, know what’s best for themselves.

The mandates created a lot of social harm and a lot of social division. We had families that were breaking up over this. We had people who weren’t able to go see their kid’s hockey games, people who weren’t able to travel, and people who were fired from their jobs. That is not the kind of society that we want to live in.

We have worked so hard over the last 30 years to end discrimination, and I just couldn’t tolerate creating a new form of discrimination. That’s part of the reason why I ran for office supporting individual choice. I continue to make sure that people know that I will support them in the choice that they make for themselves and their family.

Mr. Jekielek:
People are worried about the return of these shelter-in-place-type policies, should there be another pandemic scare. How do you view those policies?

Premier Smith:
I have been watching Sweden from the very beginning because they decided to take a different path. They essentially became the control group that we can use to compare everyone’s performance. The only other jurisdictions that were as liberal as Sweden were perhaps Florida and South Dakota. You have to look at those jurisdictions and see if they had worse outcomes.

Sadly, what happens with viruses is that they do end up sweeping through a population, and they end up hitting those who are the most vulnerable. You can take a different approach in how you protect your most vulnerable without harming the young, in this case, which happened in a lot of jurisdictions. I have been supportive of the approach of the Great Barrington Declaration and Jay Bhattacharya on how you would target your approach to those who have comorbidities, those who are seniors, and those who are most vulnerable.

I encourage people that are sick to stay home. I encourage people to wash their hands, do all of the basic hygiene, and for those who choose to, get vaccinated. That’s a far better approach, because what we’re dealing with now is the consequences of isolation. There were doctors who were warning that if you shut down society, people would lose their jobs. The financial hardship associated with that can create problems within families and cause family breakdown. It can create issues with kids experiencing isolation.

We’re beginning to see that with the current self-harm and suicide and overdose rates. You get undiagnosed diseases because people are afraid to go to see a regular doctor, so by the time they’re diagnosed with a heart condition or cancer, oftentimes it’s too late to do anything about it. Those are harms too. We have to make sure that by taking an action to protect one vulnerable group of individuals that we’re not inadvertently causing harm to the rest of society. Having a more surgical approach and a more targeted approach next time makes far more sense.

Mr. Jekielek:
You’re taking a different track than other jurisdictions in Canada in the realm of harm reduction and ways of dealing with addiction, specifically fentanyl. Please tell us what you are doing.

Premier Smith:
We are pioneering what we’re calling the Alberta Model, and it’s a recovery-oriented system of care. Our starting point is that there’s no such thing as a safe supply of fentanyl or heroin in any of its derivative forms or crystal meth. Those are not safe drugs. We do more harm to young people in trying to convey that there is such a thing as a safe supply. There just isn’t. These are dangerous, dangerous drugs.

We also believe that recovery is possible. It is not just possible, it is the most likely outcome. We have tens of thousands of people who have struggled with addiction and have managed to recover. They go on to be advocates and peer supporters to others and guide them through that journey. That’s the approach that we take—we don’t give up on people.

We want to give every person every avenue to get into recovery,
also recognizing it doesn’t always work the first time out. But we don’t give up on people. We give them an opportunity to try a second or a third time. We’re building recovery communities so that people can go into a treatment facility for a month, six months, or up to a year.

They get job skills, learn how to take care of themselves, and learn how to make their bed and cook their food. We get them connected to a job, get them connected to their family in a community, and get them on the drug replacement therapy that they might need, whether it’s Suboxone or Sublocade, and give them a new start in life.

On the other hand, we also recognize there’s some historical things that have needed to be done to ensure that people are supported until they get to that point. We still have the harm reduction, we still have the virtual opioid dependency program, and we still have pain medication management clinics. But we believe that we’ve got to lead with what the outcome is and be aspirational. We believe we should be leading with recovery, and so that’s the approach we’re taking.

We’re also extending that into our corrections facilities, because a lot of folks who’ve had some pretty hard lives and have never had this kind of support. We have three corrections facilities where we offer the same kind of intensive therapy. The reaction we’re getting is that no one has ever invested in these folks that way. That’s what we’re trying to do. They’re delighted that we are giving them another alternative and another path. For those who visit these facilities to watch group therapy, it’s very emotional. We know that we’re on the right track, and we know that we’re saving lives this way.

The third aspect would be these homeless encampments. They are not just tents, they’re not homes for people—they are gang-operated drug markets. Gangs have been in there and they threaten people. They burn down some of these tents and people have been burned alive. They store drugs, they store guns, and they have trafficked young people. We heard a story of a young girl being trafficked in these tents. We can’t allow that kind of criminality.

Therefore, we took an aggressive approach in January to clear out the encampments and connect these people with services. We created a navigation center. Rather than have these very vulnerable people have to go to eight or nine different facilities to get the support they need, we put them all in one spot. We have over 900 people that we’ve connected with over 3000 different services. Each of them are at different stages in their journey to recovery. But going forward, that’s going to be an essential part of how we deal with this in every city.

Mr. Jekielek:
I’ve heard from people who have gotten themselves off the street that someone came in and did an intervention. Someone incentivized them to change and get off the addiction track. This is opposed to the harm reduction model, which says, “I will provide you with a safe way of taking whatever drug you’re addicted to.” Is this incentive structure for recovery being created and driven forward?

Premier Smith:
You might want to interview my Chief of Staff, Marshall Smith, because he is the creator of this recovery-oriented system of care. He was on the street for four-and-a-half years, and he realized this is exactly what you need to do. Somebody once said to him, “You’re either going to jail for a long time, or you’re going into treatment.” He chose treatment and he’s been paying it forward ever since.

Mr. Jekielek:
That’s great to hear. For quite some time I’ve been following
Chinese Communist Party [CCP] infiltration into Canada. Recently, there were lots of reports about China being the biggest influencer on the political scene, even intervening in elections. It was said that CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] wasn’t allowed to brief you on foreign interference, and was only allowed to brief federal politicians. Please explain this for us.

Premier Smith:
I wish I could explain it to you, because it’s baffling to me. Again, in our system of government, we have federal level of government and provincial level of government, and we have heads of power that are determined by the Constitution. Public safety is one of the things that also falls under our provincial jurisdiction. I was concerned because there was a Chinese spy balloon that flew right across Alberta. I wanted to know what this actually was, and what they were attempting to do.

That’s when I first discovered that CSIS was only able to give us unclassified information. They couldn’t give us any further information. Then, we’ve had the foreign election interference hearings that happened. Essentially, they’ve said that they had one reporting structure, reporting up to the politicians. If the politicians they reported to chose not to pass it on, then none of us knew who was at risk.

I still don’t know if there has been any foreign interference in Alberta elections, even though CSIS has publicly said that we’re probably a big target, because of how we are situated in the world and our vast resource wealth. But these are things that we need to know so our law enforcement knows what to look for. We need to have that information so that our politicians can be aware, especially if someone is trying to cultivate a relationship with them for nefarious purposes. I’ve called for this.

I know other premiers have called for this. It looks to me like they’re changing the legislation to be able to allow for it. It’s vitally important, because there are a lot of bad actors in the world. If we are being increasingly targeted by people with bad intentions to create social disorder, then we need to understand what’s behind all of that.

Mr. Jekielek:
Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former head of CSIS Asia-Pacific, has said that every prime minister in Canada has been influenced by the CCP in some way. Our own investigations have shown that the CCP influences every level of government, all the way down to the municipal level. There was a Vancouver mayor who did get a briefing from CSIS on attempts by the CCP to influence him. I hope this issue gets resolved so that everyone can get their briefings.

Premier Smith:
I was just recently at an event put on by our Business Council of Canada and had an opportunity to talk with Robert Lighthizer, who was the chief trade negotiator under the Trump administration. They went around the table asking, “What is the biggest threat that you fear in the world?” He said, “China, and the influence of China.” I think there was a bit of a naive attitude on the part of Canada for some time.

Admittedly, it seemed plausible that if you invest in China and help them to become more economically free and have more free enterprise, that will result in more political freedom. It hasn’t turned out that way at all. In fact, we’re seeing instead that the cheap Chinese production has hollowed out our manufacturing sector, not just in the United States, but also in Canada.

When Covid hit, we saw the vulnerabilities that resulted from that. We now have to understand that China is an adversary, and make sure that we’re not playing into our own demise. That’s a strong message that the Americans have been advancing. Our former prime minister, Stephen Harper, understood that as well. It has become very clear in recent times this is absolutely the case.

Mr. Jekielek:
Robert Lighthizer was one of the few people that was able to exert leverage against communist China in an effective way. It’s the only language that is really understood over there. Platitudes really don’t work.

Premier Smith:
I understand the American position, “If you want to do trade with us, buy as much stuff from us as we buy from you.” That’s a pretty simple message. Canada and the U.S. have a very good relationship in that regard. We’re not quite equivalent. Sometimes it depends on what the value of oil and gas is, because that can determine who ends up with the deficit and who ends up with the surplus. But we’re pretty close. We’re both at about $450 billion that we buy and sell to each other.

But you look around the world with the American trading partners and it’s certainly not the case with China or some of the other players. Now, it’s all about refining oil and gas rates. I understand where the Americans are going. The way I want Canada to position itself is that America is our greatest friend and ally and neighbor. We’ve got to make that relationship be our priority. We have other relationships we need to have in the world, but we can’t do anything that interferes with that incredibly important relationship and North American energy security.

Mr. Jekielek:
Let’s talk about your position on gender ideology. Recently, the Cass Review report came out in the UK, which explains how this whole gender affirmation approach isn’t based on medicine or science. I’m curious if you feel vindicated for the position you’ve taken, and if you’re thinking of taking your approach further.

Premier Smith:
I’ve been concerned for some time about what is happening in this field and what I perceive as a lack of rigor in the science and in the medical practice. I’ve been watching what has happened in European countries as they’ve started making modifications to their approach. You see it in the Netherlands where they have done longitudinal studies. Of course, now you see with the Cass Review report.

My takeaway from that report is that a lot of the research that’s been done in the UK has been focused on gender equality. Many young people have a number of comorbidities, mental illness, developmental delays, body hatred for any number of reasons, and maybe previous sexual assault. There are all kinds of reasons why a young person might be struggling. Just affirming one particular path to dealing with it is not is not treating that whole child.

What came out of the Cass Review report is you’ve got to be very careful, very deliberate, and make sure that it’s a multidisciplinary team with a doctor, a psychologist, and the family. There needs to be a period of time for that watchful waiting, because many of these kids do come to terms with the issues they are struggling with. The ones who want to go on to transition should make that decision as an adult, because there are serious consequences.

We don’t have good research on what the long term effect of puberty blockers is. We don’t have long term research on the number of people who transition and then feel regret and transition back. It’s this absence of data that has me very concerned. We don’t want any young person prematurely making a decision that might affect their fertility. These are not decisions that can be made by 10 and 11 year olds. We think that you have to be more mature to be able to make these decisions.

That being said, when somebody has made that decision, we want to be supportive of it too. We offer support for surgeries. I’m looking at recruiting doctors who can specialize in post-surgical care, as well as specialize in being able to provide hormone therapy support for life. We want to make sure people have proper counseling and support as well through the trials that they’re going to have throughout their lifetime on this. We want to be compassionate about this. But also in this case, being compassionate is making sure that young children are not making decisions that are premature before they’re ready to understand the consequences.

Mr. Jekielek:
You are trying to make Alberta more autonomous. Please tell us about your vision for the future of Alberta.

Premier Smith:
I just think Alberta is the best place on the planet. I’ve always felt that way. There’s something really unique about Alberta. Maybe it’s because we’re a young jurisdiction. We didn’t get established until 1905. It was a hardscrabble existence here in the first decades of this province, but we attracted people from all over the world.

We really are a place that has reached out to the world and said, “Come here because you can practice your faith in your own way. You can be successful in whatever you choose to do. You can start a business. You can employ people. When you do, you can pay back to your community.”

That is the culture of Alberta. It’s so special and unique that I want to make sure we preserve it. I want Alberta to just be this bastion of freedom and liberty, a place where people from all over the world can come and find a place and know that they’re going to be successful. We’re seeing that. In the last year, we’ve had more people come to this province than at any time in our history.

We are now diversifying our economy so that we have all kinds of ways for people to contribute, not just in oil and gas, but also in green energy, in the venture capital world, in the agriculture world, and in film and television. Anyone can come here and be successful. That’s why I don’t want to see any of this erode. We are aspirational people. This is an aspirational place. Our best years are ahead of us, and that’s what I hope people will see.

Mr. Jekielek:
Premier Danielle Smith, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Premier Smith:
My pleasure talking with you.

Mr. Jekielek:
Thank you all for joining Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I’m your host, Jan Jekielek.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.