Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (3/16/26)

0:00Hey, it's Bob Stoffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now, Add Free on Amazon Music, Included with Prime. America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first, nearly three years faster. Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home. And not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us. Will we let them? Or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads, America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at AmericaCures.com. Pay for by Farma. Now at the Home Depot, receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with life proof, life proof with petproof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors, or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's top messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot.

1:01Offer valid March 12th, March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses. See Home Depot.com slash license numbers. Operator joining you in the city. Sell side. In the 880 kid building. Corus Edmonton. And this is Oilers. Now jam packed addition. And yes, it was a stellar day in oil country today. The National Hockey League, the NHLPA. With contributions from the federal government, the provincial government, the municipal government. Support from various different agencies confirmed. Alberta. Edmonton and Calgary hosting. One of the pools in the upcoming 2028 World Cup with Edmonton getting the semi-final and finals of the World Cup. Awesome. For those of us that went to Montreal for the four days and face off, it was incredible.

2:01It was a great event. But the World Cup of Hockey is going to be a bigger deal on that. And it's going to be special. And we're going to have it right here in oil country. And man, oh man, what a run. What a run. I mean, we've had back-to-back runs for the Amazon Oilers into the Stanley Cup Final. You know, losing in 7 and 24, losing 6 last year. But this August, we've got the Hulinka Gratsky, which is a terrific sort of U-18 tournament. And then in December of January of 25, sorry, 26 slash 27, Edmonton Red Derr host the World Junior Championship. And now in February of 28, Edmonton and Calgary co-hosting together. The World Cup of Hockey. Awesome news to say the least. The premiere of the province of Alberta, Daniel Smith, of course, was on these airwaves here in 880 Chad back in the 630 Chad days. In fact, he preceded my show, our show, Oilers Now.

3:04But when the show was new to two at that time, and Daniel was on 9-12, well, I have a sit-down conversation with Daniel. Coming up in about seven minutes' time. We'll also tell you that we'll have our fire report for Equis today with Biggest Field Head Coach Colin Chalk. We moved them up into the first hour of the show. Oilers Legend for our Friends of Contract Equipment. Former Evans Oilers Head Coach, GM. Three-time Stanley Cup Champion in Edmonton. Oilers Legend Craig McTavish. And frankly, Hockey's Frank Servali was at the NHL GM meetings, where today they announced that Prague will host the European side of the World Cup. Calgary will have the round robin side of the World Cup, and then the semi-finals and finals are in oil country here in Edmonton. You can reach this at any time on the River Creek Resort and Casino Hotline 780-451-8800. It is back to you by the River Creek Resort and Casino Don't Miss Gord Bamford.

4:04March 20 tickets at therivercrearesort.com excitement bet on it. You can text us on the Ashley Feinflowers text line 780-451-8800. Find the new floor as you always wanted. 143rd Street, 111th Avenue, or head to Ashley Feinflowers.com for more information. We are on accident oilers now. You can tweet me personally. Bob underscores Stoffer, Eden Gannem is at Eden Gannem. Gannem is G-A-N-A-M underscore. And we're also on Instagram. Find us at Oilers underscore now. Top Story for Legacy. Heat and Kool-Aid Home and O Payments to No Interest for a Year. That's how you build a legacy. Legacy Eden Kool-Aid. Edmented in Calgary, partnering up to host the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, including most importantly, the medal round. And finals. It's going to be awesome. Semifinals and finals. Let's do this. The order is coming off. A victory last night. Wasn't easy. Against the Nashville Predators.

5:04We are only going to carry the one recap here because of time as we go into the Audio Vault 4, Direct Workwear. The Oilers now, Audio Vault, is brought to you by Direct Workwear. In these type budget times, Direct Workwear is the superhero you're wallet deserves. Cute selection. Low prices at Direct Workwear. The Oilers are back at home and tonight they host the Nashville Predators. Down the left wing across to Dryside Hall. The shot scores. Leon Dryside loft, the right side, a power play goal. A wing out too. Dryside all the shot on it in the safe. Dryside all up, the left wing will get it out to his center rice. Big hit there. It's up. I want to hurt Leon a little bit. Who's shard? To echo him and his own in in. Dryside. Dryside was going down the tunnel. That's not good. Hague. He's got the gloves off with Park Coles in its center. They went in. So his wise blood on the hit on Dryside Hall. That's why they went after him. And now Hague will throw a left.

6:04And now they'll throw a right. Park Coles in. He throws a couple of rights as well. The Leon Dryside comes back from the oiler room. Just went and tested it all out on the ice during the break. Dryside will test on the V again. There's no guarantees coming back at this game. We will mention Leon Dryside is not on the bench for a period number two. And it comes out to the center to make David a two on one with some boy. He's over the line to pass. Shot. Scars. That's the boy. Well, that's the boy and the presence of mine back in the oilers. The fence of zone to realize there was a chance for a jailbreak. And he's separated from the two backtrackers on the play for Nashville. In the middle of the shot. Scores. That shot by Svetchkov. The puck cleared out. Climb it again to it. He's got the empty net. The shot. Scores. Oilers up. Three-one. Time and we'll get it out. The Edmonton Oilers will win this one.

7:04Three-one over the Nashville Predators. All right, so Edmonton gets the win. I want to get your thoughts. You can text us on the Ashley Fondler's text line. It was Aussie-wise flat with a high hit. Some might say he knew he was hitting. If that's the case, it's a predatoryal hit. Others might say, Swoon you're talking about, Stoffer. It's just a clean hit. Well, he hit him good. You hit a star player good where I come from. Something wicked this way comes. All right. So I want to know, did you have a problem with how the Edmonton Oilers responded? Put Coles and End Capiton. The two linemates with dry saddle immediately went after him. And Put Coles and got picked off by Nicholas Hague, who by the way is six foot seven. And 240 pounds. Okay. Put Coles and stood in there and fought him. I don't know about you, but I love the silly Put Coles and Capiton. You guys, it was a wood chopper's ball. You got to stick out. Again, I can go into any bar in places like, I'll say Smithers, because I planted there in 1992,

8:06or high level, because I was up there in 86. I've been to Melford and Wayburn. These are all great little communities. And when you go into those places, hell, you go to most sports parlor back in the day, and you sit there and you go, you know, I was playing barely hockey with the boys and I took a bit of a run at their best player and I'm going, what would you do? He goes, I knew I was going to have to do something, right? So how many of you had a problem with how the odors responded? You text us on that, or would you have been more upset if they didn't try to do anything? Because Frederick went after Weissblatt in the second period. At home and after, Weissblatt took a penalty in the sequence, worked him over pretty good, then Walman blew him up with the real big time hit. You tell me, did you like the odors' response? Or should they just left them alone? And not done anything? Oh, it was kind of a clean hit stop. It's not make them out and out of them all ill. You tell me, that's the beauty of the show. You don't have to agree with me.

9:06I want to know what you think. I know this, here's Conor McDavid, on the team response to the hit on dry settle. If you want to hit top guys, there's going to be a response. Yeah, obviously there's been lots to talk about with Toronto and stuff like that. It's a little bit different and you didn't love the fact that you finished the hit so hard on Leo, and obviously Leo didn't feel very good after, so you got to handle that. Jason Dickinson today, so the team is going to need to do the little things well with dry settle out at least in the short term. It's a testament to everybody digging in and doing what was necessary to win. You don't need to win games by large margins. One goal is all you need to win a game. If we're able to admit a gate scoring chances, if we're able to keep them to the outside, usually that's our good recipe for success. And then from there, the skill can take over and just score the goals that we need to score and get the job done. There you go. We'd be remiss because we do have Danielle Smith coming up at about 4.19. Here is Conor McDavid today,

10:07on the World Cup of 28 coming to Hamilton and Calgary. Yeah, good nice to play here in Canada. You're an Edmonton Calgary. We know how passionate the fans are. You know, first hand most nights and certainly in the spring. So I would expect them to be alive for that. There you have it. Here we go. 4.17 oil country back in that seed. 150 seconds time and we'll hear with the premier from the province of Alberta, Danielle Smith and Oilers now. Your little one grew three inches overnight. Adorable. Also expensive. Sell their pint sized pieces on Deepop and list them in minutes with no selling fees. Because somewhere, a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kid will outgrow tomorrow. And he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth spread budget secured. Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply.

11:08See website for details. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidetix or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at USAA.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. I am innocent. And Leon dry settled not on the ice of the main group today for practice today. We never lie in this show. At least we try not to. We pre taped our conversation with Danielle Smith. We had a window between one and before she got back to the legislator. Danielle Smith is our orders now headliner. Today brought to you by Wilhock, Beav Cherokee. Others can try to imitate but nobody can duplicate the grape flavor. Of Wilhock, Beav Cherokee only available in L.A. In the Duke, Alberta. Here's our conversation with the premier of the province of Alberta. All right, Danielle. How excited are you about the opportunity as the premier of the province of Alberta to help be a significant part in bringing the world cup of hockey to Edmonton and Gallagher?

12:09It's going to be so amazing. A joint bid between two teams that are just probably the fiercest rivals. There's a reason it's the battle of Alberta and it continues to survive after decade after decade. But to see them come together so that Canada can win the gold and be able to bring that home. I'm just so excited for 2028. It takes multiple parties to make it happen. It's not just the teams. You've got different jurisdictions. You've got federal. You've got provincial. You've got municipal. And there may be not a line on all political issues. But you brought everybody together. Well, I can tell you that the Euler's group approached us and asked if we would support their bid. Because that's one of the things that is key is that they want to see that there is support in the jurisdiction. And we said, you know, it would be a really great bid if you could do a joint bid. And it looks like they managed to get together, work whatever differences they may have had behind the scenes. And then emerged with I think a really incredible bid. And the fact that the Roger's place is what I think probably the premier arena in the entire league.

13:12And Calgary by this time, well, about a year and a half from now is going to have a companion. I think it's going to be a wonderful showcase for both of our teams in these two great cities. It's kind of interesting because when we had the old 405 lockout and I was hosting shows as far back then. I remember Cal Nichols and his son was at my wedding party. And he used to say, Bob, they are fighting for the, it's not the battle of Albert. It's the battle for Albert. Because Edmonton Calgary, we're getting money from the National Hockey League, right? And this is before a hard salary cap cut put in place. Of course, the Euler's have been a significant revenue contributor into the salary cap for, or to revenue generation for the last 15 years. Calgary will be that team as well when they get into their nobilians. Awesome to support those projects. Do you have a personal connection to the game itself that our listeners would appreciate? You don't have, like you can be honest, if you grew up a flames fan, you grew up a flames fan. It's all good. Well, I tried out for hockey, but then I tripped over the sticks and realized that, you know, figure skating was probably more for me. But I grew up in hockey arenas.

14:12I've got brothers who played hockey all the way through my one brother plane in, in Esteven, and also in Vernon. And then when it came down to it, we were an Euler's family all the way through the great run. And then I was also a flames family. When we won our Stanley Cup as well. So I am a rare Alberta fan that I cheer for both of our teams. I love both Euler's and the flames. We're joined by the premier of the province of Alberta. Danielle Smith, Bob Stoffer with you and others now. We had a couple of questions about economic impact because people want to know where the money that gets spent and how it could potentially impact things carrying forward. And that's a big part of it. So help educate the listeners that maybe didn't hear the formal part of the press conference today. Well, we heard from both tourism Calgary as well as explore Edmonton. The two tourism civic organizations and the use of methodology that is known around the world. They figure is about $375 million that will bring in economic activity. 172,000 room nights booked in us on the conservative end. And 43,000 jobs that are going to be supported by that and the hotel business, the restaurant business.

15:16And then all of the spin-off that will happen from being able to showcase both of our great cities. Internationally, we've got a number of direct flights. Maybe we'll be able to secure a few more in the next couple of years. But I think that these are the kinds of events that put Alberta on the map. And we have a plan to grow to $25 billion as a tourism economy by 2035. These are the kind of events that get us there. The last time we chatted, we were talking about the MOU, the memorandum of understanding with the provinces city and the others entertainment group, investing up to $183 million to develop the event park and the village ice district, Northside. With all the support your province has shown for downtown revitalization and ice district. Now that we're going to be hosting the World Cup of Hockey, do you take this as a sign that what you're doing is working? Well, I have full credit to the Oilers Entertainment Group because when you look at the vision that they had from years ago, to create an anchor that would revitalize downtown, we just felt like glad to see how we're doing the same thing.

16:18But there were some issues that emerged after COVID. And we assisted them in being able to partner with them on the expansion of the additional entertainment area, which I think is just going to be extraordinary in making sure that there are incredible things to do in downtown Edmonton. And that's really the key is that when people come to a city, they of course they want well-paying jobs, but they also want really interesting things to do when the work day is over. And not only have an incredible NHL team, but also all of the events that take place inside the arena and now outside the arena. And all of the additional things that are being developed around the downtown corridor, it was a major catalyst. And I'm just so pleased to see that the calories following suit in the footsteps of what the Oilers Group paved. My day kicks off with the refreshing Celsius energy drink, then straight to the gym. Pre-can pick up, back home to meal prep, time for my fire session shift. One more Celsius got to keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready.

17:19Celsius, live, fit, go. Grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com. Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein, cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. We're joined by Premier Daniel Smith, Bob Stoffer with you and Oilers now. We had Prime Minister Kerni last on the show in late September, he was in town. There's been a lot of talk with the relationship between Albert and Ottawa. Last year, you signed a deal with Ottawa to get rid of some of the nine bad laws. Look, I host a show called Oilers. Now our teams called the Oilers were in oil country. I think you know what side I'm on the ledger here. The nine bad laws that targeted our province's energy industry, where are we at with the MOU? Where's it stand now and are you getting the results you expected when you signed that agreement? Well, we go at immediate results. They lifted the emissions cap, so our energy industry can grow again.

18:21They lifted the net zero power reg so that our natural gas power producers can grow and attract AI data centers. So that was the immediate impact. But the big change is going to be when we build another million barrel-a-day pipeline to the Northwest BC coast, which I think now that we're seeing with disruption in the state of Hormuz, the fact that our friends and allies and trading partners need a secure reliable partner, that's us. And so I think that the case for more Alberta oil has never been stronger. And I'm glad to see finally that we're seeing a change in attitude at the federal level. I think that that's going to be pretty exciting, not only for us, but for the country. So no question, your opinion, what's occurring in the Middle East is a potential driver and recognition that we need to capitalize on our endowment of natural resources. Completely. I mean, we sell most of our product to the United States. And I think we're going to continue doing that. The Americans want to continue to pursue energy dominance for lots of reasons, for national security, but also to make sure that our global trading partners have a secure supply of these vital resources.

19:22But we're seeing that the countries, the group of countries, most impacted are in Asia. And when we build another pipeline to the Northwest BC coast, we can get our product to them within eight days. And I think it'll go a long way to making sure that they don't end up with severe limitations in the growth of their economy. So I'm glad to see that this is the nice part. Not all, you don't always agree when you have different political parties, but it's nice to see that we can both agree that it's good for the country and good for Alberta. If we continue to develop these resources, that's a nice change of pace. Well, so too is getting the world company. Congratulations. I'm so pleased about it. Can't wait to see what happens in a couple years. There you go. That is our conversation with Daniel Smith after today's formal part of the press conference. It is 429 in oil country. We will get to your thoughts on, hey, Edmonton is hosting the semifinal and final of the world cup of hockey. I'd like to get your thoughts on that. I'd like to get your thoughts on the orders response last night to the hit.

20:22Only on dry settle from Ozzy Weisblatt. And we'll hook up with Colin Chuck and get a farm report as well after an 880 news, whether traffic update with Thomas dies. The comedy movie of the year. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice coming only to Hulu and Disney plus this Friday. Time to party. That's a great attitude. It's a time traveling. Ask kick egg. Movie of that. You sound insane. Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marston, and Ace of Gonzalez. I thought you were a quality. Well, clones aren't real, honey. And time machines are super bonded in reality. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice, rated R. Written and directed by Ben David Grubinski. Only on Hulu and Hulu and Disney plus for bundle subscribers.