Alberta is entering 2025 with nearly a dozen legal challenges against the federal government’s policies.
In the waning days of 2024, the province said it’s preparing to launch a legal challenge against Ottawa’s clean electricity regulations, even though the government pushed its target date to fully decarbonize electricity grids from 2035 to 2050. The province, which relies heavily on natural gas for energy generation, says what the feds intend to regulate falls under provincial jurisdiction.
But there are a host of other ongoing legal challenges that Alberta is currently pursuing against the federal government.
Four of the cases relate to Ottawa’s environmental policies. The province says it’s challenging interference with its jurisdiction, while the federal government says it has the right to make policies on issues of national concern like climate change.
The other challenges relate to Alberta’s position on Charter rights protections, specifically the federal ban on certain firearms and the province’s opposition to Ottawa’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protests.
Alberta’s Justice Minister Mickey Amery put the current number of active cases at 10 at a Nov. 28 press conference, with multiple judicial reviews being involved in some of the files. But he noted that “these numbers fluctuate from time to time” due to various reasons, such as when some cases get resolved and some are combined.
If these cases remain unresolved, the number of ongoing legal challenges will likely increase, as the province has said it will challenge Ottawa’s oil and gas emissions cap regulation once it becomes law, while also planning to challenge the proposed clean electricity regulations.
Here’s a look at the legal challenges Alberta is currently pursuing against Ottawa.
Impact Assessment Act
On Nov. 28, Alberta announced it would take Ottawa to court for the second time after the federal government didn’t meet a four-week deadline the province gave it to address concerns about the amended Impact Assessment Act.
A truckload of pipes for the Trans Mountain pipeline in Edson, Alta., on June 18, 2019. Jason Franson/The Canadian Press
The act, previously known as Bill C-69, introduced federal environmental requirements for major projects such as pipelines. It received royal assent in June 2019. On Oct. 13, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the act was “largely unconstitutional,” as it violated provincial jurisdiction by giving Ottawa the ability to put barriers on projects it deems harmful to the environment.
In response, Ottawa made amendments to the legislation, saying that the amended act, which came into force on June 20, 2024, was a “meaningful and targeted” response to the Supreme Court’s decision. But Premier Danielle Smith said her province was not “meaningfully consulted” during the amendment process “despite repeated requests.”
On Oct. 4, the Smith government gave Ottawa four weeks to “remedy” the amended act, which the province said fails to “correct the constitutional deficiencies identified by the Supreme Court of Canada” and “continues to allow the federal government to encroach into provincial jurisdiction.”
Then on Nov. 28, the province filed its second legal challenge, saying Ottawa failed to “meaningfully address” the province’s concerns within the four-week deadline.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney first challenged the constitutionality of the Impact Assessment Act in September 2019. He dubbed the legislation the “No More Pipelines Act,” due to the regulatory burden he said the legislation created.
The federal government says the legislation provides needed environmental oversight.
“The Impact Assessment Act established a set of better rules to ensure that Indigenous perspectives are included from the beginning of the review process, to ensure that important environmental and climate considerations are heard and addressed, and to provide clear timelines to investors and businesses to get good projects built fast,” Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson said.
Carbon Tax Exemption on Heating Oil
On Oct. 29, the Alberta government filed an application for a judicial review of the federal government’s carbon tax exemption on heating oil.The province said the federal government failed to apply national standards “equally across the country” by creating a tax break that favours the eastern provinces–which rely heavily on heating oil to heat their homes–while excluding provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, whose residents rely on natural gas for heating during the winter.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault speaks during a media availability on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Nov. 27, 2023. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
Ottawa had announced its three-year tax exemption on heating oil in all jurisdictions on Oct. 16, 2023, saying the exemption would “provide more time and financial support for the roughly 1.1 million homes” heated by oil to switch to heat pumps. The measure will save the average Atlantic Canadian household approximately $261 over the cold season, according to the federal Finance Department.
The Alberta government, in an October 2024 news release, said Ottawa has “refused multiple requests to grant a similar carve-out on other heating methods from Alberta and others across the country who are also facing rising costs of living.”
The carbon tax is “crippling us, making everything more expensive,” Smith said in a July 2024 post on social media platform X. Meanwhile, Ottawa has said that it puts money back into the pockets of Canadians in the form of rebates “while fighting climate change.”
National Plastics Ban
In September 2022, Alberta announced it would intervene, or make submissions to the court, in a constitutional challenge of federal legislation that designated manufactured plastics as “toxic”—a key step by Ottawa to ban some types of single-use plastic products.The challenge had been brought forward by the Responsible Plastic Use Coalition, Dow Chemical, Imperial Oil, and Nova Chemicals, a group of plastics manufacturers that argued that the federal government did not provide enough scientific evidence to justify the regulations.
On Nov. 16, 2023, the Federal Court ruled that Ottawa’s attempt to label manufactured plastic items as “toxic” was “unreasonable and unconstitutional,” saying it was too broad under federal law.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Ottawa would appeal the ruling. “The body of scientific evidence showing the impacts on human health, on the environment of plastic pollution, is undebatable. And the Canadian public has been asking us to do this,” Guilbeault told reporters on Nov. 20, 2023.
Plastic straws are pictured in Vancouver on June 4, 2018. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward
In response, Premier Danielle Smith vowed to stay involved throughout the appeal process. “Ottawa cannot assume regulatory authority over any substance simply by designating it as toxic,” she said in a press release on Dec. 19, 2023. “We will continue to push back against Ottawa’s unconstitutional actions, including through this legal action, until they listen.”
Federal Firearms Ban
Since the federal government announced its prohibition on more than 1,500 models and variants of firearms in May 2020 as part of a plan to tackle gun violence, Alberta has been a vocal opponent.The province argues that the ban targets law-abiding gun owners rather than criminals, while Ottawa maintains the measure is necessary to keep what it describes as “firearms designed for the battlefield” out of communities.
In September 2022, Alberta said it would intervene in six judicial review applications that were challenging the constitutionality of the ban. The applicants, including representatives of Canada’s National Firearms Association and the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights, argued that Ottawa acted beyond its authority in the ban.
The six applications were heard together, and on Oct. 30, 2023, the Federal Court sided with Ottawa, saying the measures were “reasonable” because the prescribed firearms were “not suitable for civilian use and are not reasonable for hunting and sporting purposes.”
More than a year later, Alberta is currently involved in four reviews related to the the firearms ban, the provincial justice minister’s press secretary Chinenye Anokwuru told The Epoch Times on Dec. 24. She declined to provide details, saying that the matters are before the courts.
In March 2023, the Alberta government introduced the Alberta Firearms Act to “strengthen” the province’s ability to regulate and administer firearms. The act received royal assent later that month, and among the first steps taken under the act was a move to restrict municipalities and police from entering into “unilateral” agreements with Ottawa to enforce the federal firearms buyback program.
Then-Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc speaks at a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Sept. 7, 2023. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
A year and a half later, Premier Smith in September 2024 announced amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights, saying the changes will strengthen the protection of Albertans’ rights, including the right to “acquire, keep and use firearms in accordance with the law.” The amendment bill was tabled in October and passed third reading on Nov. 27.
On Dec. 5, the federal government added 324 makes and models to the list of prohibited firearms, bringing the total of prohibited models and variants to over 2,000. Ottawa also said it will proceed with regulatory measures “to ensure that all firearms in the Canadian market are accounted for.”
Emergencies Act
On Feb. 19, 2022, then-Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said his province would challenge Ottawa in court over what he deemed an “unjustified” use of the Emergencies Act amid the convoy protests. He said Alberta would also intervene in support of other court challenges on the use of the act.The Freedom Convoy protest was started in response to a federal mandate in early 2022 requiring COVID-19 vaccination for truck drivers crossing the Canada–U.S. border. It resulted in encampments of trucks in the nation’s capital. The federal government ultimately invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022, which gave law enforcement expanded powers, including the power to arrest demonstrators and freeze the bank accounts of some protesters.
Trudeau revoked the use of the act on Feb. 23, 2022, a little over a week later. However, Kenney said his province would still seek a judicial review of the act’s invocation to address the “abuse of power.”
A public inquiry, which was set up as part of the Emergencies Act to evaluate whether its use was justified and was headed by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Paul Rouleau, said on Feb. 17, 2023, that the government had met the “very high” threshold required to invoke the act.
However, in a challenge brought forth by some of the protesters and civil liberties groups, a Federal Court declared on Jan. 23, 2024 that the invocation of act was “unreasonable” and that related regulations infringed on Canadians’ Charter rights. Alberta acted as an intervener in one of the four applications for judicial review that led to that ruling.
Police disperse demonstrators to end the Freedom Convoy protest after the Emergencies Act was invoked, on Wellington Street in Ottawa on Feb. 19, 2022. Getty Images/Alex Kent
A month later, the federal government filed an appeal of the Federal Court’s ruling, arguing the act was only invoked after “careful and serious deliberations.” Ottawa said the decision to invoke the act was “not an easy one” and that it was important to remember “the severity of the situation in 2022.”
Meanwhile, Premier Smith welcomed the ruling, calling it “another example of the Federal Court ruling against the Federal Government’s unconstitutional practices.” “The unnecessary use of the Emergencies Act set a dark and dangerous precedent,” she said, adding that Alberta will be prepared to intervene in Ottawa’s appeal.
Federal Fertilizer Act and Regulations
The last legal challenge relates to another of Ottawa’s climate change policy measures—a national plan to reduce nitrogen emissions from fertilizer application.In December 2020, the federal government set a voluntary target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with fertilizer application by 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. It said the measure would allow farmers to reduce emissions over the long term without curtailing growth in crop yields, including via use of new technologies and better nitrogen management.
The provincial governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan opposed the target, saying it compromises food production.
“Western Canadian farmers already produce the most sustainable agri-food products in the world, and they’re continually being asked to do more with less,” the provinces said in a July 2022 joint statement. “We cannot feed the growing world population with a reduction in fertilizer.”
In August 2022, the federal government completed a public consultation on the measure and affirmed its commitment to ongoing discussions and collaboration with farmers and stakeholders in meeting the target. Participation in the program remains voluntary, it said.
In November 2022, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA), an association representing the 69 counties and municipal districts in the province, tabled a resolution asking Ottawa to either cancel the target or ensure that it remains voluntary.
Although the association didn’t receive a direct response from the government, it classified its resolution as “accepted,” as the target remains voluntary, the RMA said.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
