Source: Government of Canada regional news (2)
Over the past decade, Liberal governments – backed by the NDP – have enacted policies that Albertans feel undermine their economy and future. This has led to widespread frustration following the recent federal election.
While Alberta is willing to collaborate in good faith with Prime Minister Mark Carney to reverse these policies, the province will take immediate steps to protect its interests until tangible changes are made.
“We continue to do all in our power to counteract Ottawa’s chill on investment in energy, agriculture and our other job sectors. We have fought these attacks from Ottawa furiously and have won some important battles, but the lost opportunities, jobs and futures of so many Albertans are costly and demoralizing – as are the growing number of eastern politicians who choose to openly demonize and target Alberta for political gain. That is why a large majority of Albertans, myself included, are so deeply frustrated with the results of last week’s federal election and it is why we must take action and are doing so imminently.”
First, Premier Danielle Smith will soon appoint a special negotiating team to represent our province in negotiations with the federal government with the hope that this will result in a binding agreement that Albertans can have confidence in. The following reforms will be requested:
- Guaranteed corridor and port access to tidewater off the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic coasts for the international export of Alberta oil, gas, critical minerals and other resources in amounts supported by the free market, rather than by the dictates and whims of Ottawa.
- The end of all federal interference in the development of provincial resources by repealing the no new pipelines law Bill C-69, the oil tanker ban, the net zero electricity regulations, the oil and gas emissions cap, the net zero vehicle mandate, and any federal law or regulation that purports to regulate industrial carbon emissions, plastics or the commercial free speech of energy companies.
- The federal government must refrain from imposing export taxes or restrictions on the export of Alberta resources without the consent of the Government of Alberta.
- The federal government must provide to Alberta the same per-capita federal transfers and equalization as is received by the other three largest provinces – Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
Second, while these negotiations with Ottawa are ongoing, Alberta’s government will appoint, and Premier Smith will chair, the Alberta Next panel. This panel will be composed of some of the province’s best and brightest judicial, academic and economic minds, to hold a series of in-person and online town halls to discuss Alberta’s future in Canada, and specifically, what next steps Alberta can take as a province to better protect itself from any current or future hostile policies of the federal government.
Details of the membership and scope of that panel will also be released in the coming weeks.
After the work of the panel is finished, it is likely we will place some of the more popular ideas discussed with the panel to a provincial referendum so all Albertans can vote on them sometime in 2026.