Sonya Savage
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Sonya M. Savage is a Canadian politician who was the minister of energy for
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
from April 20, 2019, to October 2022. She was Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, being appointed on October 21, 2022. A member of the
United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party ...
(UCP), she was elected following the
2019 Alberta general election The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 ...
to represent
Calgary-North West Calgary-North West is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district was created in 1979 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. History The electoral district was created in ...
in the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...
. Savage also acted as the minister of justice and solicitor general of Alberta from January 18 to February 25, 2022, while incumbent minister
Kaycee Madu Kelechi "Kaycee" Madu (born ) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. As a member of the United Conservative Party (UCP), Madu represented Edmonton-South West in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2019 to 2023. He was elected in the 2019 pr ...
underwent a probe into his conduct. Savage was on the Legislative Review Committee and also previously was the Deputy Government House Leader. In September 2023, she became Senior Counsel at
Borden Ladner Gervais Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (abbreviated as BLG) is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada with almost 900 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals. With two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMas ...
. As of March 2024, she is also a Board Director for E3 Lithium.


Political career

Savage was elected following the
2019 Alberta general election The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 ...
to represent
Calgary-North West Calgary-North West is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district was created in 1979 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. History The electoral district was created in ...
. In March 2023 announced she would stand down at the
2023 Alberta general election The 2023 Alberta general election was held on May 29, 2023. Voters elected the members of the 31st Alberta Legislature. The United Conservative Party under Danielle Smith, the incumbent Premier of Alberta, was re-elected to a second term with a ...
.


Minister of Energy (April 2019- October, 2022) and Minister of Environment and Protected Areas (October, 2022- June, 2023)

Savage, whose background in energy and the environment includes major projects, such as the
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines were a planned-but-never-built project for a twin pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, British Columbia. The project was active from the mid-2000s to 2016. The eastbound pipeline would have impo ...
and with her work as an executive of Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA), was appointed Minister of Energy on April 30, 2019. She had been tasked with overhauling the
Alberta Energy Regulator The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is a quasi-judicial, independent agency regulating the development of energy resources in Alberta. Headquartered in Calgary, the AER's mandate under the ''Responsible Energy Development Act'' (REDA) is "to ...
(AER)—one of the UCP's campaign promises with the aim of implementing "shorter timelines for project approvals." She was also involved in "CEPA's examination of Bill C-69, Ottawa's overhaul of how major energy projects — including oil and gas pipelines — are reviewed by the federal government." While Energy Minister, she implemented a liability management framework to accelerate reclamation of well sites. She established a framework to advance CCUS hubs and allocate pore space for decarbonization projects. She brought in legislation, regulation and policies related to critical mineral development, geothermal energy, helium, hydrogen, and small modular reactors. While Environment Minister, she developed a net-zero climate plan for the province, the Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan, announced in April, 2023. https://www.alberta.ca/emissions-reduction-and-energy-development-plan.aspx In February 2019, the previous government signed a crude-by-rail program agreement with two railway companies—and the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
(CPR)
Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
(CNR) with a goal of reducing the Western Canadian Select price discount that has been exacerbated by the "lack of pipeline capacity". Through the four-year, $3.7-billion agreement the "province would have purchased and shipped 120,000 barrels of crude a day." The
New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...
(NDP) government had estimated that the program would have generated "revenue of $6-billion", according to ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
''. The Kenney government cancelled the agreement shortly after taking office due to the estimate that it would have costed over $10.6 billion and would be something more appropriately left to the private sector. In the first year as minister Savage negotiated with
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
(CPR)
Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
(CNR) to cancel the crude-by-rail program agreement signed by the Premier
Rachel Notley Rachel Anne Notley (born April 17, 1964) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who was the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019 and leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2014 to 2024. Notley was the member of the Le ...
. In a May 20 interview on the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) podcast, Minister Savage told the podcast host, John Bavil, that Green party leader,
Elizabeth May Elizabeth Evans May (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, lawyer, activist, and author. She has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Saanich—Gulf Islands since 2011. May is the leader of the Green Party ...
's May 6 comment that "oil is dead" was not "gaining resonance with ordinary Canadians" because Canadians need oil. "Canadians are just trying to get by." 17:06 Savage added that Canadians were "not going to have tolerance and patience for protests that get in the way of people working", and that the "economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic favours pipeline construction", according to Canadian Press journalist, Bob Weber. Savage told Bavil that "Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can't have protests of more than 15 people...Let's get it built." The comment received wide media coverage. On January 18, 2022, Premier Jason Kenney announced that Savage would serve as acting minister of justice pending the conclusion of a probe into the incumbent minister Kaycee Madu's behaviour following a traffic stop.


Electoral record


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Sonya United Conservative Party MLAs Living people Women MLAs in Alberta Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Women government ministers of Canada 21st-century Canadian women politicians 1967 births 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta