Response to first ministers’ meeting: Premier Smith

Premier Danielle Smith issued the following statement following Wednesday’s first ministers’ meeting:

“I met with the Prime Minister and my fellow premiers this morning to discuss how we can work together to take decisive action on the war on fentanyl, and border security.

“Alberta is looking forward to the imminent appointment of a ‘fentanyl czar’ to coordinate our nation’s response to the fentanyl crisis, as well as funding and resources from the federal government to assist our province’s law enforcement initiatives to tackle this issue.

“As a province, in addition to the border security measures already taken, I have instructed my government to take immediate steps to significantly increase police and prosecutorial resources to go after the fentanyl labs, kingpins and dealers that are responsible for killing 49,000 Canadians since 2016.

“We will also continue to move forward with our recovery treatment centres and will be moving forward, this year, with promised compassionate intervention legislation and the construction of secured mandatory treatment facilities in Edmonton and Calgary.

“In addition, Alberta will continue its diplomatic efforts with U.S. lawmakers and officials. To this end, I will join my fellow premiers in Washington D.C. next week and will attend the National Governors Association convention the week thereafter.

“Finally, in addition to our nation’s shared effort to address fentanyl, it is imperative that a federal election is called immediately after the Liberals have chosen their party leader so that we have a Prime Minister with a strong mandate to negotiate a new Canada-U.S. trade agreement. This cannot be properly negotiated by our country from a position of strength without a Prime Minister with a strong and clear mandate from Canadians.

“To this end, we call on all Liberal leadership candidates and federal party leaders to agree to an election to commence in March at the very latest.”