Juno News - Alberta's first official separation referendum question

00:00:00.000 The Alberta Prosperity Project has announced the official separation referendum question

00:00:09.900 it hopes to pose to citizens. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith unveiled a freeze to the industrial

00:00:16.000 carbon tax. The BC NDP government is prohibiting non-indigenous people from accessing the Joffrey

00:00:23.040 Lakes Provincial Park. Hello Canada, it's Tuesday, May 13th and this is the True North Daily Brief.

00:00:29.460 I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:35.760 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:44.680 The Alberta Prosperity Project has unveiled the question it plans to put to Albertans

00:00:50.280 if a citizen-initiated referendum on separation from Canada proceeds. Constitutional lawyer and

00:00:57.500 general counsel with the Alberta Prosperity Project, Geoffrey Rath, announced the proposed

00:01:02.880 referendum question on Monday. The question reads, quote, do you agree that the province of Alberta

00:01:08.840 shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada? The group is currently

00:01:14.900 collecting signatures as part of a pre-registration effort required to submit a formal referendum

00:01:21.360 petition with Elections Alberta. Due to technical issues, live updates on the signature count have

00:01:28.280 been suspended. However, as of Monday, the Alberta Prosperity Project has secured at least 240,000

00:01:35.360 signatures. While the province has proposed legislation to lower the legal referendum signatures

00:01:41.700 threshold from 600,000 to 177,000, the bill has yet to pass. Therefore, the Alberta Prosperity Project

00:01:50.480 still has its targets set on the 600,000 goal, although it will likely be reduced to 177,000 shortly.

00:01:59.340 The organization, a non-partisan group, outlined a roadmap to sovereignty. First, the group aims to

00:02:06.040 educate Albertans on the significance of sovereignty and the process for accomplishing it. Next, it plans

00:02:12.340 to collect 600,000 signatures within 90 days. Again, this is based on previous legislation and will likely

00:02:19.960 soon change to 177,000 signatures within 120 days. While progressing towards the referendum, the project

00:02:28.600 said it would support political leaders who align with the goal of sovereignty. The key initiatives

00:02:34.680 proposed by the group are establishing an Alberta pension plan and a provincial police force. The project

00:02:41.560 also calls for the province to have greater authority over immigration management, tax collection,

00:02:47.640 and employment insurance. Jeff, since the election of Mark Carney as Prime Minister at the federal level,

00:02:56.280 there has been an explosion in interest in Alberta separation and sovereignty. And there are quite a few

00:03:03.160 groups, if I'm not mistaken, that have emerged or were pre-existing before this happened. So Jeff,

00:03:10.360 could you just enlighten our listeners? What are some of the other groups attempting to introduce a

00:03:15.960 separation referendum or approaching Alberta sovereignty politically? Yeah, Cosman, the Alberta Prosperity

00:03:23.240 Project's referendum push isn't the only effort in Alberta challenging the province's ties to Canada.

00:03:28.040 There's several groups that are pushing separation or greater sovereignty through various means.

00:03:32.600 The Independent Party of Alberta, a registered political party, advocates for Alberta's full

00:03:37.480 independence through electoral politics, focusing on negotiating with Ottawa for control over taxation,

00:03:42.600 pensions, and immigration, as outlined on their website in March 2024. They ran candidates in the 2023

00:03:48.680 provincial election, but didn't secure seats. Similarly, the Wild Rose Independence Party, active

00:03:54.280 since 2020, pushes for outright independence, with their 2023 platform calling for withdrawing from the

00:04:00.440 Canada pension plan and creating an Alberta revenue agency, capturing 2.3% of the vote in that election.

00:04:06.600 Other groups take a broader approach to sovereignty within Confederation. Alberta First focuses on

00:04:11.560 grassroots advocacy, urging Alberta to assert autonomy by opting out of federal programs like the Canada

00:04:17.240 Health Act and drafting a provincial constitution. They've held town halls with 5,000 attendees in 2023.

00:04:22.920 The Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta, though smaller, has supported a sovereignty referendum since

00:04:27.880 2019, advocating for a sovereignty act to nullify federal laws, a concept echoed in Premier Daniel

00:04:34.360 Smith's Alberta sovereignty within a United Canada Act, passed in December 2022. These groups

00:04:39.640 collectively highlight a range of strategies, political, grassroots and legislative, aiming to

00:04:44.280 either separate from Canada or secure greater provincial autonomy.

00:04:51.480 The Alberta government is freezing its industrial carbon tax at $95 per ton of emissions to protect

00:04:57.160 businesses from growing uncertainty caused by the ongoing tariff war. The province argues it can reduce

00:05:02.440 emissions through technological innovation, not unrealistically high taxes as required by the federal

00:05:08.040 government. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz announced the freeze Monday,

00:05:13.800 halting a planned increase to $110 per ton in 2026 and a further rise to $170 per ton by 2030,

00:05:21.800 under the province's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Regulation.

00:05:25.960 Smith said she heard the concerns of business and industry leaders who were warning that further tax

00:05:30.440 hikes would harm Alberta's competitiveness and be detrimental to their businesses.

00:05:34.040 Smith said, quote, Alberta remains committed to reducing emissions through the development and

00:05:39.880 implementation of new technologies, not unrealistically high taxes, while responsibly powering the world

00:05:46.200 for decades to come. Since 2007, Alberta has reduced emissions from the oil sands by over 22%,

00:05:53.080 while simultaneously increasing oil production by 90%. Meanwhile, the province's overall emissions have

00:05:58.840 decreased by about 7.2%. Smith said, quote, if industry told us that any increase past $100 per

00:06:05.960 ton would be harmful, you can imagine what $170 per ton industrial carbon tax would do to our industry.

00:06:11.640 That would be devastating to Alberta's economy. This is yet another example of Ottawa overstepping

00:06:16.840 into our provincial jurisdiction with reckless policies that damage our industry. The Premier explained

00:06:22.360 that the tax freeze would help not just the energy industry, but also agriculture, forestry, petrochemicals,

00:06:28.200 and more. Schultz said energy demand is soaring globally, and the world wants Alberta's resources,

00:06:33.800 but Ottawa's climate agenda has made investment more difficult. Smith pointed to Quebec's lower

00:06:38.760 carbon price as further evidence of unequal treatment under Ottawa's climate framework,

00:06:43.000 and urged the federal government to abandon its ideological approach.

00:06:46.600 So, Cosmin, how has Prime Minister Mark Carney advertised the industrial carbon tax?

00:06:50.840 Has he acknowledged the cost to industries?

00:06:52.600 So, yeah, Jeff, we all recall back during the federal election when Carney suddenly turned around

00:07:00.760 and joined the so-called axe the tax crowd by axing the consumer carbon tax. Or rather,

00:07:08.360 he didn't actually axe it because the legislation is still in effect. That's why we're talking about

00:07:14.120 an industrial carbon tax today. But he reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero,

00:07:20.680 making a big show of it as one of his election promises. But now we see that the problem of the

00:07:29.560 carbon tax has not actually gone away. Because the industrial carbon tax, it essentially affects

00:07:37.240 everything we consume, we purchase at the store, anything that travels using fossil fuels,

00:07:45.080 on a truck, on an airplane, on a vessel, etc. And essentially, Mark Carney has spoken out of both

00:07:54.120 sides of his mouth when it comes to the carbon tax. In an attempt to take some of the popularity or

00:08:01.800 rather the wind out of his conservative opponent during the election, he wanted to position himself

00:08:08.520 as somebody who opposed the carbon tax or at least the consumer carbon tax. But as I just mentioned,

00:08:15.800 the industrial carbon tax is a consumer carbon tax as well because we pay for it at the end of the day.

00:08:22.440 Industries are going to pass on that cost to consumers. But in terms of the way he has essentially advertised

00:08:30.200 it, he's said several things which don't actually stand up to scrutiny. For example, he's called it

00:08:36.200 a competitive edge for industries. When we have business and industry leaders across the country,

00:08:43.800 not only in Alberta, saying that the industrial carbon tax reduces competitiveness, it doesn't

00:08:50.760 actually promote it. And additionally, the industrial carbon tax is set to increase. The federal government

00:08:57.960 has not paused increases on the industrial carbon tax. So in many ways, Carney has attempted to

00:09:04.760 gain favor from the electorate. But now, after the election, after everything is all said and done,

00:09:11.880 we are still left with this industrial carbon tax. It is raising the prices of things. There was a

00:09:18.120 temporary reprieve from that consumer carbon tax reduction, but the prices continue to escalate as the

00:09:26.360 industrial carbon tax also goes up. The British Columbia NDP government has banned non-indigenous

00:09:35.880 Canadians from accessing a provincial park until the end of the week. Joffrey Lakes Provincial Park has

00:09:42.280 been off limits to visitors since April 26th, so local First Nations can, quote, connect with the park,

00:09:48.680 despite it being crown land. Located approximately 35 kilometers east of Pemberton along Highway 99,

00:09:55.960 Joffrey Lakes Provincial Parks is known for its awe-inspiring landscapes and serene ambience. However,

00:10:02.200 BC Park says the park will remain off-limits to recreational visitors until at least May 17th.

00:10:09.560 In a statement released by BC Parks, the agency said the closure aims to, quote,

00:10:14.040 recognize the importance of the Joffrey Lakes Park area to the two indigenous communities

00:10:19.480 and to provide them with dedicated time, quote, to connect with the land. Former BC United candidate

00:10:26.520 Caroline Elliott raised concerns about broader implications in an ex-post on Friday, suggesting

00:10:32.520 the decision to close the park on the basis of, quote, traditional territory could signal a lurch away

00:10:38.760 from the basic principle of Western property rights. Day use access to the park will resume on Saturday,

00:10:45.480 at which point visitors age 12 and up will again be required to book a free day use pass in advance.

00:10:52.600 The decision to restrict non-indigenous access to the park follows the BC government's decision

00:10:58.280 to recognize the Haida Nation's Aboriginal title to all of Haida Gwaii. The agreement signed in April

00:11:05.240 2024 and reconfirmed by the federal government in February, affirms Haida indigenous ownership over

00:11:12.200 the archipelago, including lands, freshwater bodies, and foreshore to the low tide mark.

00:11:19.240 Critics have raised concerns that the decision ignores the property rights of non-indigenous landowners

00:11:25.240 who were not consulted on the land title change. So for those who are not from BC or are not aware of this,

00:11:32.280 essentially the BC government has entered into agreement with the Haida Gwaii First Nations to

00:11:40.120 give them title over the entirety of a massive piece of land. It's a huge piece of land today known as

00:11:48.040 Haida Gwaii and not only the land but the surrounding waters. Now, there has been quite a bit of legal

00:11:56.680 criticism. There hasn't been that many outspoken activists against it because of the sensitivity

00:12:03.160 of the conversation. But there are quite a few legal criticisms, Jeff. And if you could just go through

00:12:09.800 some of the available criticisms to the Haida Gwaii land title claim. Yeah, the BC NDP's closure of

00:12:17.400 Joffrey Lakes Provincial Park to non-indigenous visitors mirrors the controversial Haida Gwaii land title

00:12:23.400 agreement. And the criticisms of that deal shed light on similar tensions. The Haida Nation's

00:12:27.880 Aboriginal title to Haida Gwaii, recognized by the BC government in April 2024 and reaffirmed by

00:12:33.400 the federal government in February, has faced significant pushback. The provincial opposition

00:12:37.560 BC Conservative Party criticized the agreement, arguing it puts private landowners at the mercy

00:12:42.840 of Haida and future Haida indigenous law. They contend that the deal undermines non-indigenous

00:12:47.880 property rights by potentially subjecting the landowners to new governance structures without

00:12:52.600 their input, raising fears of diminished control over their own land. Further criticism centers on

00:12:57.480 the lack of consultation and clarity. While the agreement states existing private

00:13:02.040 while the agreement states existing private property interests will be honored,

00:13:05.320 it still creates uncertainty for non-indigenous residents as the transition process for land and

00:13:10.280 resource management remains undefined. Lawyer Jeffrey Rath, who has also been involved with the Alberta

00:13:14.920 Prosperity Project, echoed this in a Western Standard piece from May 1, arguing that the

00:13:19.960 agreement prioritizes indigenous title over established Western property law principles,

00:13:24.520 potentially setting a precedent for other regions like Joffrey Lakes. Critics, including former BC

00:13:29.720 United candidate Caroline Elliott, fear this reflects a broader trend, where public access and

00:13:34.440 non-indigenous rights are sidelined under the guise of reconciliation, without significant

00:13:38.760 transparency or consideration for all stakeholders. These concerns highlight a tension between indigenous

00:13:43.640 recognition and the perceived erosion of non-indigenous property rights.

00:13:50.360 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday

00:13:55.160 by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it,

00:14:00.280 make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - May 13, 2025

Alberta's first official separation referendum question

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