Redford takes Keystone talks to Washington

Premier Alison Redford will be in Washington this week to discuss the future of the province's energy interests and the continuation of Alberta-U.S. trade.

According to a release made Sunday, co-operative international ventures such as the Keystone XL pipeline will be high on the premier’s list of priorities for the visit.

In particular, she will be speaking with legislators and administration officials on both sides of the Keystone debate in order to more specifically address Alberta’s environmental policy and updates in the province’s clean technology development.

"It's a very focused agenda," said Redford on Friday. "Very specific meetings with people who have very particular concerns — and we want to be able to continue to be proud and to talk about the pride that we have in what our environmental agenda has been."

"It’s all about making sure that we are telling Alberta’s story in the U.S.," added Redford’s director of media relations Neala Barton on Sunday.

"There’s probably still a lot of Americans who don’t know that Alberta has a price on carbon, that we were the first in North America to require larger emitters to cap their emissions — so we have a really good environmental record here and we want to make sure we’re telling Americans what that is."

Barton said that Redford will also be using the trip as an opportunity discuss the continued importance of responsible energy development, which she says will strengthen economies on both sides of the border.

"[We want to make sure] we’re reinforcing Alberta’s side of things and getting the message out that we are a great place to do business," said Barton. "Opening up that market will create lots of jobs for the United States as well."

"We are going to be here for the long term to provide energy security to the United States."

Redford will be joined in Washington by Cal Dallas, Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, and Diana McQueen, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

This is the premier’s fourth visit to Washington in the past 18 months. The total pricetag for the trip is estimated to be $34,000.

This will be added to the $77,000 Redford’s party has already spent on an ad campaign that will roll out in Washington starting Tuesday.

Barton says the print and online ads will reach 1.5 million people, including key decision makers, across the nation’s capital.