In this episode, I sit down with Alberta s Premier Rachel Notley and Environment Minister Stephen Guibault to discuss Alberta s ongoing fight with the federal government on issues such as clean energy and climate change. We talk about the Supreme Court of Canada's recent ruling on the sovereignty act, and how Alberta is fighting back.
00:00:02.200It's very frustrating because I can tell you that on some projects, we're making great progress with the federal government.
00:00:08.980We've got a number of tables where we're discussing the use of hydrogen.
00:00:12.740They've been with us for joint announcements on geothermal, on net zero plastics, which just happened this week.
00:00:19.980I know we're going to talk about that in a little bit.
00:00:21.860We are working on a plan for how we might be able to roll out small modular nuclear.
00:00:25.720And yet on the issue of trying to align them with our 2050 target for carbon neutrality, you've got Stephen Gabow, the environment minister, who has just dug in.
00:00:36.300We've now had two court decisions that have admonished the federal government.
00:00:40.380They've said this is not cooperative federalism.
00:00:42.580You cannot use the pretext of it being federal jurisdiction to invade provincial jurisdiction.
00:00:49.880And I know that when I first started talking about the Alberta Sovereignty within the United Canada Act, the media were saying, are you going to respect the court decisions?
00:01:20.820And I feel like when we have a major departure in government policy caused by the federal government and we need to take future action, that's what the Sovereignty Act is all about.
00:01:29.600It's putting the legislature on notice that there will be new policy coming forward, there will be new resolutions coming forward, and there may be new legislation coming forward.
00:01:39.840So we are waiting to see what the federal government does with their final version of the regulations.
00:01:46.220And we've been asking for a car vote so that we can continue down the path of getting to carbon neutrality by 2050.
00:01:53.480If not, there's a couple things we'll have to do.
00:01:55.760We'll have to become the generator of last resort in Alberta.
00:01:59.620And that means that rather than just sitting back idly while these private sector companies turn off our baseload power because they're trying to meet some arbitrary target of the feds, we would have to take those over and we would have to run them until the end of their natural life while we're waiting for new projects to come on stream.
00:02:16.340If there's so much uncertainty that the private sector won't build us new baseload natural gas, and I can tell you Capital Power has gone to an investor conference and they've said the same thing.
00:02:26.660They said, I'm sorry, with the federal government rules, it's too risky for us to invest in natural gas, then we'll have to do it.
00:02:34.140We are a natural gas basin and 90% of our power on most days comes from natural gas.
00:02:38.900It is still the most cost-effective option for us, and we'll proceed with the best available technology on the issue of emissions abatement.
00:02:47.600And if that puts us in conflict with the federal government, I'm prepared to say that they can take us to court and I think we'll win it.
00:02:54.720You know, I think Albertans clearly understand that message.
00:02:57.580Your ministry has, you know, Nathan Newdorf and others have been good about communicating that, but Ottawa isn't listening.
00:03:26.040And in areas where we overlap, we've got to work together.
00:03:28.680I've been asking to work together right from the moment I got elected leader in my very first conversation with the Prime Minister.
00:03:34.840But I think they're caught in this paradigm where they do look at the provinces as a subordinate level of government.
00:03:41.840They do think that just because they've passed something in the parliament that it's legal and they can do whatever they want.
00:03:48.060And I'm telling you that that's not how the court sees it.
00:03:50.640So we're going to continue to advance our interests.
00:03:53.340We're going to continue to assert our areas of jurisdiction.
00:03:56.240And if all of these issues end up in the courts, it'll be them taking us to court for a change.
00:04:00.840Because what I've observed about what they do is they pass unlawful legislation, unlawful being that because it violates the Constitution, which is the highest law on the land.
00:04:12.080Then they force us to go to court for years, creating all the economic uncertainty, all of the investment that flees.
00:04:18.700And then we win and they act like it didn't happen.
00:04:20.780Well, we're not going to let that happen this time.
00:04:23.000We're going to proceed, make sure that we've got investor confidence, make sure we're continuing with these projects.
00:04:28.780And if they think they can mount a case about why they should violate provincial rights and why they should violate the Constitution, then power to them.
00:04:35.980They can go to the court and they can make that case.