Smith implies not necessarily separation, but separation if necessary

 

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith threw down the gauntlet with the federal government on May 5, demanding a long list of grievances be resolved, now.

There was also an implicit threat of separation in her remarks. While Smith said several times she would not support Alberta separation from Canada, she all but dared the people of Alberta to put it to a referendum, having in the past week introduced measures to lower the bar for such a referendum.

It was similar to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King during the Second World War, when he said, “not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.” In this case, Smith was essentially saying to the effect “not necessarily separation, but separation if necessary.”

Those grievances include building pipelines to the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, seeing the federal government “end all federal interference in the development of provincial resources by repealing the “No New Pipelines Law,” 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 regulation that purports to regulate industrial carbon emissions, plastics or the commercial free speech of energy companies.”

She also demanded “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.”

But there was also something entirely new in her demands: that Alberta get the same per capita equalization payments that British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec get. As Alberta gets nothing in the way of equalization payments, but Quebec gets to the tune of $13 billion per year (roughly equal to Alberta’s contribution), enacting such a demand would dramatically and fundamentally change the equalization structure of the country.

And if Alberta doesn’t get its way, she implied separation was on the table. While she said she and her government do not support separation, Smith also paved the way for a citizen-led referendum on separation to take place in 2026. The speech just may touch off a constitutional crisis as Smith argues that that she cannot watch the middle class of Alberta and the oil and gas industry die a slow painful death under a federal heel. The threat of a citizen-led referendum on Alberta separation now hangs over any negotiations with Ottawa and the rest of Canada. 

Here are Smith’s words, verbatim. The separation bit gets intense at the end. The bolded subheadlines are added to make it easier to navigate, but were not part of the speech.

 

My fellow Albertans. Today I wish to speak to you about the future of Alberta and Canada. Albertans have always been loyal, proud and generous Canadians.

We love Canada. We have fought wars, died defending Canada. We’ve opened our doors wide for millions of our fellow Canadians searching for opportunity, many of whom stay and become Albertan and many who return home to their native province. All have been welcomed with open arms.

Our province has contributed hundreds of billions of dollars more to the federal treasury for use in other parts of the country than will ever receive back in benefits. We have allowed this to occur because, quite frankly, we know how blessed our province is with an endowment of natural resources that no other country on Earth possesses. And we want all of our friends, families and fellow Canadians across the country to benefit from it.

 

We don’t ask for special treatment or handouts. We just want to be free, free to develop and export that incredible wealth of resources we have for the benefit of our families and future generations. Free to pursue opportunities with the ideals of entrepreneurship, hard work and innovation that have become synonymous with the name of our province. Freedom to choose how best to provide health care, education and other needed social services to our people, even if it’s done differently than what Ottawa has in mind.

“Strong and free” is more than just our provincial motto. It represents who we are and how we want to live as a people. And that is why Albertans are so frustrated with the direction of our country.

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Federal onslaught

For the last 10 years, success of Liberal governments in Ottawa, supported by their New Democrat allies, have unleashed a tidal wave of laws, policies and political attacks aimed directly at Alberta’s free economy and in effect, against the future and livelihoods of our people. They have blocked new pipelines with C-69, canceled multiple oil and gas projects, and banned the very tanker ships needed to carry those resources to new markets. They have stacked an oil and gas production cap on top of a crippling industrial carbon tax, making new energy and agricultural projects economically impossible to pursue without massive subsidies from governments, which Ottawa has failed to provide, and which our taxpayers cannot afford.

This onslaught of anti-energy, anti-agriculture and anti-resource development policies have scared away global investments to the tune of a half a trillion dollars, driving those investments and jobs out of Alberta and Canada to much more attractive investment climates in the United States, Asia and the Middle East. Having traveled much of the world these past few years, it is evident that Canada is not viewed as an attractive place to invest in resource development, manufacturing or agriculture, because of our high carbon taxes, endless red tape, and the uncertainty and chaos brought about by these and other federal government policies.

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Lost our minds

As a result, Canada has fallen to dead last in economic growth among industrialized nations the world looks at us like we’ve lost our minds. We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on Earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer, to the south of us, while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch. For Albertans, these attacks on our province by our own federal government have become unbearable. As I said, these policies have cost Albertans roughly a half a trillion dollars in investment, and that loss is growing daily. It has and will continue to cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, robbing countless Albertans and other Canadians of their means of providing for their families. It has cost us a decade of opportunities and tens of billions in lost royalties that could have been invested in health, education, infrastructure and social services Albertans and Canadians need.

And what’s worse, Ottawa continues onward with more destructive policies. They have imposed Net Zero mandates on our natural gas-based power grid, causing investment in reliable generation from natural gas to flee, thereby endangering the future stability of our power grid and risking future blackouts and spikes in electricity costs for Alberta families and businesses.

They have attacked our food producers with methane taxes, onerous regulations on fertilizer, electric vehicle mandates and many other destructive policies that have hiked costs on our farmers and ranchers and driven billions of dollars of investment in agriculture elsewhere.

They’ve interfered in provincial jurisdiction time and again, from taking over the regulation of plastics to mandating how we operate child care, health care and dental care. To harassing law-abiding firearms owners, to dozens of other examples of unconstitutional interference.

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Fighting back

And of course, Alberta has fought back. We always have, and always will. We passed the Sovereignty Within A United Canada Act, and have invoked it twice, to protect Albertans as best we can from the effects of the Net Zero electricity regulations and the energy production cap.

We beat the Feds in court on both the “No New Pipelines Law,” C-69, and their attempt to regulate plastics, though they have ignored both court decisions to this point. And we have just announced a core challenge on the Net Zero electricity regulations, and are further preparing to also challenge the energy production cap. We continue to do all in our power to counteract Ottawa’s chill on investment in energy, agriculture and our other job sectors through various tax cuts and incentive programs which greatly strain the provincial budget.

We have fought these attacks from Ottawa furiously, and have won some important battles, but the lost opportunities, jobs and futures of so many Albertas 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 are so deeply frustrated with the results of last week’s federal election. Is not that our preferred candidate and party lost. That happens in a democracy. It’s that the same Liberal government with almost all the same ministers responsible for our nation’s inflation, housing, crime and budget crisis, and that oversaw the attack on our provincial economy for the past 10 years, have been returned to power.

Now, as we all know, one thing has changed. We have a new prime minister, and I will say that in my first conversation with him since the election, he had some promising things to say about changing the direction of his government’s anti-resource policies. However, Albertans are more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words kind of people. So while I will in good faith work with Prime Minister Mark Carney on unwinding the mountain of destructive legislation and policies that have ravaged our provincial and national economies this past decade, until I see tangible proof of real change, Alberta will be taking steps to better protect ourselves from Ottawa.

As a start, I will soon appoint a special negotiating team to represent our province in negotiations with the federal government on the following reforms requested by our province. We hope this will result in a binding agreement that Albertans can have confidence in. Call it an “Alberta Accord,” if you will.

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Pipelines

First, Alberta requires guaranteed corridor and port access to tide water 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. Every province in the country other than Alberta and Saskatchewan have coastal port access, and no province needs it more, given the size and value of our resources. This will benefit all Canadians to the tune of trillions of dollars of economic activity, including billions for First Nations partners.

Scrap federal interference

Second, the federal government must end all federal interference in the development of provincial resources by repealing the “No New Pipelines Law,” 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 regulation that purports to regulate industrial carbon emissions, plastics or the commercial free speech of energy companies. These laws are destroying investment, confidence and cost in Canada and Alberta, hundreds of billions in investments each year. They need to go.

Third, 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. Frankly, all provinces should be given that same respect for their resources.

Equalization

And fourth, 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. We have no issue with Alberta continuing to subsidize smaller provinces with their needs, but there is no excuse for such large and powerful economies like Ontario, Quebec, BC or Alberta to be subsidizing one another. That was never the intent of equalization, and it needs to end.

If these points can be agreed to by the federal government, I am convinced it will not only make Alberta and Canada an infinitely stronger and more prosperous country, but will eliminate the doubts a growing number of Alberta’s feel about the future of Alberta in Canada.

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Referendum

While these negotiations with Ottawa are ongoing, our government will appoint, and I will chair, the Alberta Next Panel. This panel will be composed of some of our best and brightest judicial, academic and economic minds to join with me in a series of in person and online town halls to discuss Alberta’s future in Canada, and specifically, what next steps we can take as a province to better protect Alberta from any current or future hostile policies of the federal government. Details of the membership and scope of that panel will 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 that all Albertans can vote on them sometime in 2026.

To be clear from the outset, our government will not be putting a vote on separation from Canada on the referendum ballot. However, if there is a successful citizen-led referendum petition that is able to gather the requisite number of signatures requesting such a question to be put on a referendum, our government will respect the democratic process and include that question on the 2026 provincial referendum ballot as well.

Indigenous people

I also want to state unequivocally that, as premier, I’m entirely committed to protecting, upholding and honoring the inherent rights of First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples. Therefore, any citizen initiated referendum question must not violate the constitutional rights of First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples, and must uphold and honor Treaties Six, Seven and Eight, should any referendum question ever pass, this is non negotiable.

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Separation as the elephant in the room

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room, that being separation.

We are well aware that there is a large and growing number of Albertans that have lost hope in Alberta having a free and prosperous future as a part of Canada. Many of these Albertans are organizing petitions to trigger a citizen-initiated referendum, as I mentioned earlier. The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified. They are loyal Albertans. They are quite literally our friends and neighbors who have just had enough of having their livelihoods and prosperity attack by a hostile federal government. They are frustrated and they have every reason to be.

I want to talk directly to those Albertans. I know how frustrated so many of you have become with our country, and the feeling of having politicians living thousands of miles away passing laws and rules that have cost you your loved ones, jobs, careers, dreams and opportunities for a brighter future.

As most Albertans know, I have repeatedly stated, I do not support Alberta separating from Canada. I personally still have hope that there is a path forward for a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada. And let me explain a few reasons why.

First, Alberta already has and can continue to use the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act and other measures to fight through much of Ottawa’s damaging interference and prosper in spite of it.

We will also continue our successful battles against these unconstitutional and damaging policies in both the courts of law and public opinion.

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And there is more to be hopeful for. This past election demonstrated that attitudes across the country, especially among young people, are changing with respect to understanding the importance of free markets and the development of our natural resources. People are pushing back against government censorship and cancel culture. More and more Canadians understand that in order for Canada to play a role in ending conflict and poverty at home and abroad, our country must become strong again, and we can only do that by becoming an energy and economic superpower using the vast and unmatched energy mineral resources and fertile lands of our country.

Eighty-five per cent of Canadians in this last election voted for the two leaders promising to turn Canada into an energy superpower and to build resource corridors, including for oil and gas, while only 13 per cent voted for the fringe voices in the socialist NDP and Bloc parties and their extremist leave-it-in-the-ground policies. Obviously, we have a ways to go, and it will take a lot of work to undo the damage caused by these last 10 years of Liberal-NDP rule, but that clear change in public opinion gives me hope. I think it should give all Albertans hope.

Now, none of us knows what the future holds, should Ottawa, for whatever reason, continue to attack our province as they have done over the last decade. Ultimately, that will be for Albertans to decide, and I will accept their judgment. But I am going to do everything within my power to negotiate a fair deal for Alberta with the new prime minister. And while doing so, our government will work with Albertans on various initiatives to better protect Alberta’s provincial sovereignty and economy from Ottawa, should those negotiations fail and the economic attacks continue.

Alberta didn’t start this fight, but rest assured, we will finish it, and come out of it stronger and more prosperous than ever.

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Three valid viewpoints, but none are traitorous

In closing, I want Alberta to know how important it will be in the coming months for our province to be steadfast, unified, and to refrain from heeding the voices of those seeking to divide Albertans against one another. There will be many outside and even inside this province who will try and sow fear and anger among us. They will seek to divide us into different camps for the purposes of marginalizing and vilifying one another based on differing opinions, effectively pitting neighbor against neighbor and Alberta against Alberta.

This is not the Alberta way. It’s not who we are and it’s not who I am. There are thousands of Albertans who are so frustrated with the last 10 years of Ottawa’s attacks on their friends and family’s livelihoods that they feel Alberta would be stronger and more prosperous as an independent nation. That is an understandable and justifiable feeling to have, even if we disagree on what to do about it. These Albertans are not traitors, nor should they ever be treated as such. They just love their province and family and want a better future than the one Ottawa is offering them right now.

There are also thousands of Albertas that are so attached and loyal to their identity as Canadians that there is nothing Ottawa has done to our province that would justify Alberta leaving Canada. It’s not that they think everything is perfect, or that we’ve been treated fairly. They just believe being part of Canada, despite those problems, has much more value than leaving. These individuals are also loyal Albertans, and should never be accused of being anything less.

And then there are hundreds of thousands of Albertans that probably feel a lot a lot like I do, that are deeply frustrated with the way our province has been mistreated and damaged by successful, successive federal liberal governments, and are not willing to tolerate the status quo any longer. But these Albertans still believe there is a viable path to a strong, free and sovereign Alberta empower to succeed and prosper within a united Canada, a Canada where the federal government actually honors the Constitution, upholds provincial rights and empowers provinces to pursue their unique potentials as their people so choose.

Regardless of what each of us believes about this issue or what path we think is best, we as Albertans, must be able to respectfully debate and discuss these issues with our friends, family members and neighbors. I know that if we do that, in the end, our province will find the best solution for this immense challenge we face and come out of it stronger and more free than ever. I’ll always put my faith in Albertans to find the right path. I trust you.

May our beautiful Alberta always remain forever strong and free.

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