In this episode, Alberta s premier, Rachel Notley, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announce a landmark agreement with the federal government on the West Coast oil pipeline project. They also discuss the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling allowing a referendum on separation from Canada.
00:00:00.000Hi Premier, Matt's case, the Globe and Mail.
00:00:02.700So the federal government in Alberta have both talked about the need for investor confidence to get a private proponent to build a West Coast pipeline.
00:00:10.000At the same time, Alberta is pursuing an appeal in pursuit of having the courts allow a vote to break apart the country and your government refuses to rule out, using its power to call in an independence referendum.
00:00:19.720How do you square fighting for a secession question while providing investor confidence?
00:00:24.680That's what I think we have to understand, that a single judge appointed by Justin Trudeau can't override what 700,000 people in this province have said they want.
00:00:37.120Well, good afternoon, everyone. This is a good day for Alberta and a good day for Canada.
00:00:43.000The last 10 years have been an extremely difficult time for hundreds of thousands of Albertans and their families whose livelihoods depend on a strong and growing Alberta oil and gas industry.
00:00:51.240but today we're turning a corner. As I announced with the Prime Minister earlier this morning,
00:00:55.500I am thrilled to share that the agreement we signed today clearly sets out a pathway to the
00:00:59.380construction of a new oil pipeline to Asian markets, commencing as early as September 1st,
00:01:04.6002027. The proposed West Coast oil pipeline would transport more than 1 million barrels of oil per
00:01:09.940day. This landmark agreement builds on the collaboration between the federal and provincial
00:01:14.000governments following the signing of the Alberta-Canada Energy Agreement, which was signed
00:01:18.280in november of 2025 thank you and for the media i'm happy to take your questions and we'll go into
00:01:24.120our media q a now we'll be taking one question and one follow-up and please state your name and
00:01:28.840outlet before asking your question we'll start off at the mics before going on to the phone lines
00:01:33.160and we'll go to our first at the mic go ahead and ask a question hi premier uh matt's case the
00:01:37.560global mail uh so the federal government in alberta have both talked about the need for
00:01:41.560investor confidence to get a private proponent to build a west coast pipeline at the same time
00:01:46.200Alberta's pursuing an appeal in pursuit of having the courts allow a vote to
00:01:49.020break apart the country and your government refuses to rule out using
00:01:52.800its power to call an independence referendum. How do you square fighting
00:01:56.820for a secession question while providing investor confidence?
00:01:59.880Look I mean I support sovereignty within the United Canada. That means something.
00:02:03.240That means Alberta should stay a part of Canada and continue to pursue and
00:02:06.360support and enshrine our constitutionally in invested rights and
00:02:11.220also make sure that the federal government respects them. That's what
00:02:13.200days about it's it's not just saying this is the way the federal government works so we just have
00:02:18.440to accept it it's saying you know what the country can work better and it works better when we
00:02:22.980respect our equal areas of jurisdiction and we find areas of overlap that's what i'm i've been
00:02:27.240doing since november is what i will keep on doing every single day to convince albertans that canada
00:02:32.280can work and it will work and it is working in the best interest not only of us but also of canada
00:02:36.140the issue regarding the court judgment and i have to say there's sort of two judgments that came out
00:02:40.500At about the same time, one judgment was saying, was against the Citizens Initiative Act altogether, saying it shouldn't proceed because all questions that could potentially be asked by citizens would be deemed in need of some kind of consent.
00:03:01.240So that one came out because it was overly broad.
00:03:03.760So then it was followed up by this one that seems to put a requirement on citizens' initiative to do a duty of consultation.
00:03:10.980And quite frankly, I don't even know how that would be possible.
00:03:12.760How are citizens who want to put a petition question forward supposed to comply with that?
00:03:17.080That effectively negates the Citizen Initiative Act.
00:03:19.660That's why I've said it's anti-democratic and we think it's an error in law.
00:03:23.000So we want to preserve the right of citizens to be able to have broad latitude to ask these questions on whatever topic they choose.
00:03:31.600And we will have to have a meeting with caucus and cabinet to figure out the particulars of the one that has been struck down.
00:03:37.600But the judgment itself has much, much broader implications for our citizens' initiative process.
00:03:44.060And we think that's the reason it needs to be challenged.
00:03:46.380Do you think, though, that you can get a private proponent behind a pipeline if there is a referendum on separation hanging over Alberta for who knows how long?
00:03:53.940Well, I think that what we need to do is make sure that the separatist sentiment is not as high as it has been in the last year.
00:04:00.920When the Liberals got elected, separatist sentiment went up to 42%.
00:04:04.620In our most recent polling, we've seen that it's somewhere between 33% and 35%, so it's coming down.
00:04:52.380Thank you, Matt. We're going to have to go to our next question. We're tight today.
00:04:55.460Okay, and do you think if Ottawa had approved a pipeline years ago,
00:04:58.560the independence movement would be where it's at now in terms of momentum well i can tell as i
00:05:02.800said i mean it's it's it's vitally important that this deal was signed because i think there's a
00:05:08.000number of decisions the federal government made that ended up eroding confidence and it's not
00:05:12.720it's not just about um getting a pipeline built it was that they took away aspirationally of us
00:05:19.360ever getting another pipeline to be built ever again because we do have trans mountain pipeline
00:05:24.160We do have coastal gas link, which is expanding in natural gas, but essentially, staring into
00:05:29.260a future where not only we would never be able to build another pipeline, but we'd have
00:05:33.200to start shutting in our existing production, which is what several independent consultant
00:05:37.680reports said, by 2 million barrels a day by 2035.
00:05:40.900And all of the impact that would have on our finances, on our taxes, on our ability to
00:05:44.720pay for services, it was that combination of packages.
00:05:47.960Same thing with the net zero power regs.
00:05:50.180That may, in fact, be the biggest thing that came out of our early MOU.
00:05:53.980And the announcement you saw the Prime Minister make earlier in the week,
00:05:57.780that natural gas, yes, has to be part of our electricity grid
00:06:00.780in order to be able to provide stability.
00:06:02.92090% of our daily use of power typically comes from natural gas.
00:06:07.300And we've already paid billions of dollars to switch from coal.
00:06:11.840We know that solar, wind, and batteries are not able to continue fueling our continued growth.
00:06:16.960So that, to me, having that limitation was also causing some of the frustration.
00:06:22.720Frankly, I've also mentioned to the Prime Minister, people are frustrated at immigration policy that took place under his predecessor.
00:06:28.540I'm glad to see that he's making some changes there.
00:06:30.760And a lot of the separatist movement is being fueled by those who are law-abiding gun owners who are going to be made criminals by the existing federal firearms bans on guns that come into effect in October.
00:06:41.280So I think that this will help a lot towards a group of folks who were disaffected because of economic issues.
00:06:48.400I think some of the changes on immigration that we're going to be proposing in the fall will also help address some of the concerns.
00:06:54.500But I still think there's some other outstanding issues, and in particular the gun issue I think is a big one.
00:06:58.500Thanks, David. And we'll go to our next question.
00:07:03.120Yesterday you were chatting about the court ruling, the judge's ruling,
00:07:06.840and you kind of hinted that maybe the notwithstanding clause was on the table here.
00:07:10.380constitutional lawyers say that's you know out of the question um so number one why bring it up
00:07:16.160and number two what what are kind of your options if you do appeal and you lose well the constitution
00:07:21.100does give um rights to provinces and to um uh the federal government and i think that there's some
00:07:27.620grounds to be able to to challenge the the court decision on this in particular um because my
00:07:32.620concern is that it's an over read and an overreach on the issue of duty to consult duty to consult
00:07:38.480as i understand it has been project specific it's you have a particular project it has particular
00:07:43.340impact on uh the adjacent bands when it comes to their hunting uh fishing and trapping rights
00:07:48.140maybe use of water and so there's a very defined project that you have to do and you have a defined
00:07:52.840duty to consult i have no idea how the court would expect a citizens group to be able to meet the
00:07:58.340duty to consult that was just made up in in that judgment and so that's why it needs to be
00:08:02.540challenged is because otherwise it could potentially potentially negate our citizens
00:08:07.040Initiative Act, and it could be a reach-in of the court on every single bill that we could ever pass
00:08:12.800that could ever possibly have an impact on First Nations. And that is a pretty dramatic curtailment
00:08:17.480of provincial rights under the Constitution. So I think I would encourage you to look at it more
00:08:22.020broadly, that when these court decisions are left unappealed, it can lead to consequences like we
00:08:29.800see in British Columbia, where they thought that they were passing just statements of intent and
00:08:35.200cooperation, and now their entire property rights and development regime is under uncertainty
00:08:40.840because of court decisions. So we don't want to go down that path in Alberta. We think the court
00:08:44.540is overreached here. We think they've made an undemocratic decision that isn't valid in law,
00:08:49.220that's an error in law, and that's why we're going to challenge it.
00:08:52.460You've kind of downplayed the role of the courts here. I just want to know at what points,
00:08:56.140what ruling needs to come down, what appeal needs to be denied before you say that's enough,
00:09:00.540or do we reach a point where you say, no, I'm ignoring this and this referendum can go forward?
00:09:04.160Well, Supreme Courts, we honour those rulings, and that's what I think we have to understand,
00:09:11.020that a single judge appointed by Justin Trudeau can't override what 700,000 people in this province have said they want.
00:09:17.780I think that if you want to be a democratic government and run a democratic province,
00:09:22.320there has to be some deference of the court to the democratic process.
00:09:25.420I just don't simply believe that an unelected judge should be able to run roughshod over all of these democratic provisions
00:09:34.060especially when we've been very clear as a legislature that we wanted the Citizen Initiative Act to be very permissive.
00:09:39.800We understand that if it comes to a point of implementation, there's a duty on us as government to make sure that aboriginal rights are respected.
00:09:48.300But it would be impossible for a citizen group to be able to meet that standard.
00:09:52.760And so that's why we think it needs to be challenged.
00:09:54.380A few weeks ago, you ruled out the option of using the Referendum Act to yourself as a government put the independence question on the ballot for October 19th.
00:10:05.180That was before the Justice Leonard ruling.
00:10:08.500Now we have Jeffrey Rath and Mitch Sylvester saying that you need to do this if you're interested in your own political self-preservation to stay on the job.
00:10:16.960Can you please walk us through your thoughts on, at this point, the downsides and upsides of the Alberta government putting forth a referendum act question itself on independence?
00:10:29.780Well, I have to have that conversation first with my caucus and cabinet.
00:10:33.060And there is a committee that is assessing the Forever Canada petition right now.
00:10:39.780So it's a bit premature for me to figure out what my caucus and cabinet might want to do.
00:10:46.360Well, again, my thinking is that a citizen should we should be very permissive and that citizens should have been allowed to put these questions forward.
00:10:54.480And then depending on what the outcome is, that's when government acts.
00:10:57.200And so we're still analyzing what the court judgment said.
00:11:01.860We're waiting for the committee to do their work.
00:11:03.800And I'll be having a cabinet caucus meeting next week.
00:11:06.160And so we'll be able to walk you through it at that time after I've talked to them.
00:11:09.540And then you said a bit earlier how, you know, this agreement to the MOU as a whole, you know, it's not going to completely take out the separatist movement.
00:11:18.200And yesterday the Prime Minister said, he was asked, you know, will a pipeline restore or kind of maintain national unity?
00:11:24.620Or was he building one to maintain national unity? And he said no.
00:11:28.020My question for you is, do you think that Alberta forever now will just actually have
00:11:31.880kind of like this hardcore group of separatists, and there's really nothing at all
00:11:36.760that anyone, like any elected official can actually do to, you know, restore their faith, as you say?
00:11:42.960Well, I think that what people should take from the process that the Prime Minister and I went
00:11:47.760through over the last six months is that that's how cooperative federalism should work,
00:11:52.340is that if you have a disagreement on policy about how you should proceed,
00:11:55.900and especially if it's one that enters into a provincial jurisdiction or significantly impacts
00:12:01.520our resource development. That shouldn't be done unilaterally as it was done for the past 10 years
00:12:07.280with the previous Trudeau regime. I think what I saw over the past six months is a prime minister
00:12:13.620who, maybe because he lived in Europe, understands cooperative federalism, understands that there's
00:12:18.100certain things that you do at the central level and there's certain things that you've got to let
00:12:21.460the province do and then there's other things that you got to get to a table and sort out
00:12:25.020and I think that he even talked about cooperative federalism and I think this is a demonstration of
00:12:30.740that so what I would expect is that as these issues arise I hope there's not gonna be a whole
00:12:35.200lot more of them I'd mentioned a couple that are still causing some friction but as those issues
00:12:40.420arise I would expect just from what I've seen out of the prime minister that that's how we would
00:12:43.800deal with them and I think that's what Canadians would expect I think that's what Albertans expect
00:12:47.160I think other provincial premiers appreciate that kind of approach, and I just wish that it hadn't got to this point.
00:12:53.220I just wish that this is the way that cooperative federalism had worked for the previous 10 years,
00:12:56.860because we might not have seen that anger and frustration and despair build up the way it did.
00:13:03.280So we're trying to win people back decision by decision to understanding that the country can work,
00:13:08.920and I think this is a good day for us to have done that.
00:13:11.080It's a good day for Alberta, and it's a good day for Canada.