Alberta to fight back against Liberal emissions cap

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In an effort to prevent the imposition of the federal emissions cap on Alberta’s oil industry, the provincial government is moving to prohibit federal officials from entering any oil and gas facility, prohibiting the disclosure of emissions information to the federal government without provincial approval, and plans to launch a constitutional challenge to the federal policy should it become law.

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On Tuesday afternoon, Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party introduced a motion in the legislature under the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act.

“We will continue to defend our province from Ottawa’s senseless and direct attack,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in a news release.

The Alberta government has regularly feuded with the federal Liberal government over its emissions-reduction and climate-change policies. The provincial government strenuously opposed — and unsuccessfully sued to demolish — the imposition of a federal carbon tax. Alberta has also sued over federal reforms to the legislation governing industrial project approvals and over exemptions from the carbon tax for home heating oil.

“Ottawa seems to think that they need to save us from ourselves. But they are wrong,” Smith told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “They’ve chosen their path, so we’ve chosen ours, and the fight will continue for as long as it has to.”

But when Smith became leader of the UCP in 2022, after former premier Jason Kenney stepped down, one of her keystone policies was the Sovereignty Act, then a piece of proposed legislation exempting Alberta from federal laws and court decisions if approved by the legislature.

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While the realities of governing have tempered the legislation and its scope, Tuesday’s motion demonstrates the breadth of potential steps the Alberta government could take to impair the application of federal policy.

In October, the Alberta government launched a $7-million “Scrap the Cap” advertising campaign in opposition to the long-feared emissions cap.

Tuesday marks the second time that Smith’s government has invoked such a measure. In December 2023, the legislature passed a motion to work to prevent the imposition of the federal government’s forthcoming clean electricity regulations, which would push provincial power grids to net zero by 2035.

The emissions cap, if adopted by the federal government, would force oil and gas facilities to cut emissions to 27 per cent below 2026 levels by 2030. The provincial government argues that this amounts to a limit on oilsands production, while the federal government maintains that emissions reduction, and carbon-capture and storage can bring much of the industry within bounds.

A Deloitte report argued that if the cap were adopted, Alberta’s gross domestic product would drop by $191 billion between 2030 and 2040, and Canada’s overall GDP would drop by $91 billion. It also predicted the loss of 55,000 jobs across Canada and the exodus of nearly 26,000 people from Alberta.

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The measures proposed Tuesday would, in theory, help stymie the federal development and imposition of the emissions cap. When it was first announced last month, Smith said federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault had a “deranged vendetta” against Alberta.

In order to develop the emissions cap, companies will need to report their emissions to the federal government, beginning in 2026. The federal government will then use those figures to set the emissions cap by the end of 2027.

However, if the Sovereignty Act motion is adopted — and it’s almost certain to, since the UCP has a majority in the Alberta legislature — the Alberta government will declare that data “proprietary information exclusively owned by the Government of Alberta, and mandate that all emissions data be reported and disclosed at the province’s discretion.”

The Alberta government could prevent that data from reaching the federal government in the first place, although Smith told reporters that the information would be released, just through the provincial government. That companies report their emissions data to the provincial government directly would, if the motion is adopted and legislation enacted, become mandatory as a condition of a company receiving a licence from the provincial government to extract oil, Smith said.

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The Alberta government would also prohibit entry of federal officials to Alberta oil-production facilities. It would also give oil facilities protection under Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. Adopted in 2020 at the height of protests held in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who were fighting against the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the legislation prohibits interference and protests at a variety of facilities. It was used to limit hospital protests during the COVID-19 pandemic, and allows for thousands of dollars in fines to be levied against those who breach trespassing laws.

The Soverignty Act motion would also prevent any Alberta government entity from participating in the development or enforcement of the emissions cap. Should the emissions cap become law — and it may not, should Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win election before the Liberal government pass it — the Alberta government would also launch an immediate constitutional challenge.

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