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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says finalizing an energy agreement with the federal government that includes a new West Coast oil pipeline could not only tamp down the separatist movement in her province, but also lead to more “accommodations” from Ottawa on other issues.
In an interview with David Akin that aired Sunday on The West Block, Smith said energy has been a major point of contention between the provincial and federal governments and gave Prime Minister Mark Carney “great credit” for pursuing a solution.
“I hope that we’ll be able to announce that we’ve come to an agreement very soon, and that will start paving the way to show Albertans that Canada can work,” she said.
“That’s what I think we have to do. We can’t just tell them, we have actually show them.”
But Smith made clear that “this isn’t the only issue” Alberta wants resolved.
The premier pointed to an upcoming referendum set for October that will ask Albertans to weigh in on immigration policy and other matters of federal jurisdiction.
She also noted that Mitch Sylvestre, the leader of the Alberta independence petition delivered to Elections Alberta last week, “is a gun shop owner” opposed to the federal firearms ban and buyback program for outlawed models that critics say include certain sports shooting rifles.
“We have to find a way to accommodate that Alberta sees the world a little bit differently,” the premier said.
“And I hope that the prime minister does that, because that will go a long way towards showing what cooperative federalism looks like in practice.”
Asked if getting a new pipeline approved will end the separatist urge in Alberta, Smith replied that “a lot gets solved when people have a well-paying job” and see services improved by increased government revenues from energy exports.
“There’s no question that’s a huge chunk — I think that (separatist urge) certainly comes down,” she said.
“I hope that what this does is, by starting with the hardest part first, I hope we can find other ways that we can find some accommodations.”
The overarching goal of pursuing these issues, Smith said, is to demonstrate that “there’s a different way for us to have more decentralized decision-making, to have different priorities in different regions,” while working together on “the big things.”
That approach would also help address separatist sentiment in Quebec, she added, and even solve the “Ottawa problem” faced by other provinces.
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“I think Quebecers are just as frustrated with the attitude that has come out of Ottawa in the last 10 years (under former prime minister Justin Trudeau),” she said. “But there is a noticeable change. I don’t know if they feel the same way in their relationship with the prime minister, but I have seen that the prime minister has made a genuine effort.
“We have to heal this divide that we have. That’s what I’m working towards.”
Smith said after meeting with Carney in Ottawa last week that she’s hopeful a final agreement from last year’s memorandum of understanding on energy is reached in the “next number of days.”
She told Akin that her government was “on track” to get a pipeline application submitted to the federal Major Projects Office in June.
That application will include a number of proposed routes from the Alberta oilsands to the West Coast, she added — not all of which would be to northern British Columbia, an idea that has been opposed by the B.C. government and First Nations.
“We have five ports that we’re looking at,” she said, including twinning the Trans Mountain Pipeline route to Metro Vancouver.
“We want the best port. We want ones that are going to have the most buy-in from the local community and not have issues of congestion, navigation, and those kinds of difficulties as well.”
The main goal for Smith, she said, is to restore private sector confidence that a pipeline and other energy infrastructure can be built.
Asked if de-risking such a project could mean the province or Ottawa purchasing the new pipeline, similar to how the previous Liberal government bought TMX from Kinder Morgan, Smith said “no.”
She said the approach would more likely include the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, where the province underwrites loan guarantees for First Nations that take equity stakes in major projects.
“We’re prepared to put that on the table,” she said.
Smith also said the model used by LNG Canada, which is jointly owned by domestic and foreign energy companies that benefit from its exports, could be replicated for the new pipeline venture.
“We can’t have a country where the only major projects that get built is if they’re nationalized or if the government pays for them,” she said. “We have to get the private sector to have confidence again.”
Although Smith said she’s “grateful” for U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent approvals of pipeline permits that will expand export capacity from Alberta to the U.S., she said that’s not the only priority.
“I always felt like the very best opportunity that we have is to continue to shore up that relationship,” she said, adding she has been advocating for stronger Canada-U.S. energy ties “for some time.”
“But I think that from a unity point of view, opening new markets point of view, our best route is the one to the West Coast.”
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