Alberta’s Economic Development and Trade minister spoke to the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce yesterday, selling his government’s plan for diversification, maintaining essential services and balancing the budget by 2023.

But the issue on everybody’s mind, was the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Expansion project.

From what he gathered on a trip to Asia, Deron Bilous says Canada remains an attractive place to invest, despite the uncertainty leading up to Monday’s news.

“Investors made it very clear that they need to see action. They need to see this pipeline get built in order to restore their confidence. We’ve already heard from a number of international investors, that they’re quite pleased that this project now has certainty, that it’s moving forward,” Bilous said.

“Regardless of if the Province of British Columbia, or others, try to continue to delay, this project is going to move forward. We’ve won every single court decision to date. I’m confident we’ll continue to win those.”

The minister’s confident that shovels will be in the ground soon, saying they’ve won every single court decision related to the project thus far.

Bilous won’t be the only senior member of the Alberta government to stop in Red Deer. Premier Rachel Notley will be speaking to the chamber about the pipeline next Monday.