Alberta Premier Reviews 2024, Outlines Priorities for 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith gives an Alberta government update in Calgary on Jan. 10, 2023. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says 2024 was an unpredictable year that left key issues like power grid instability undiscussed while bringing new issues such as trade tariffs and AI data centres to the table.

In a Jan. 2 episode of the provincial news program Alberta Update, Smith spoke about the challenges her government faced last year and what lies ahead for her province and the country in 2025. She said the new AI data centres and U.S. trade talks drew attention away from issues that had been critical in early 2024.

“What surprises me is how something is the most important issue of the moment, and then a year later, we’re not even talking about it,” she said. “And when you think of what we were talking about at the beginning of January, it was our failing power grid.”

The province faced significant power grid challenges in 2023 and 2024, with rising prices and pressures on the grid leading to power outages during a cold snap last January due to high demand and insufficient energy in the system.

Smith said that while the province may still face such problems in 2025, it now has an oversupply of electricity. “Prices have come down, and my Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Newdorf is in the middle of a major restructuring of our electricity market,” she said.

One issue that was not on Alberta’s radar but now features prominently in its plan to take the province to the international stage is the attraction of energy-intensive AI data centres, Smith said. On Dec. 4, the Alberta government announced a strategy to become “North America’s destination of choice” for the emerging sector, leveraging the province’s natural gas supply and energy industry.

Smith said the idea came about after her government received requests from firms interested in opening data centres.

Response to Trump’s Tariffs

Smith was asked about possible U.S. tariffs as Canada readies for a federal election in the same year that the Trump administration is preparing to take office. Smith said Canada will be at a disadvantage navigating relations with the United States until it has a prime minister with a four-year mandate.

“I have argued that we need to have an election, whether that’s to give the current prime minister a new mandate, so he does have that strength going to the table, or whether it’s because we need to get a new person at the table,” Smith said.

The 2025 federal election will take place on or before Oct. 20.

She added that recent instability in Ottawa, highlighted by the resignation from cabinet of Chrystia Freeland—whom Smith called “the point person to deal with the Americans”—left a vacuum in trade talks that premiers have been trying to fill.

In response to the tariff threats, Smith said her $29 million border security plan is based on understanding U.S. national security concerns and why they might be a reason for tariffs.

“We are showing, ‘We’ve heard you. It’s an issue for us. There’s guns coming across the board, there’s human trafficking, there’s smuggling of fentanyl and precursors, and we don’t want that to go either way, because it’s hurting our people too,’” she said.

The federal government has allocated $1.3 billion to boost border security in response to Trump’s tariffs. So far, the president-elect hasn’t indicated if he deems the actions taken by Canada to be satisfactory to hold off on the tariffs.

Carbon Tax and Other Ottawa Policies

Smith highlighted how in 2024 the federal government pushed back its net-zero electricity grid target to 2050 from 2035. The province took Ottawa’s decision as validation of its own approach, she said, as Alberta had consistently maintained that achieving a carbon-neutral power grid by 2050 was more “realistic.”

Smith also reaffirmed her opposition to other environmental policies by Ottawa, such as an emissions cap on oil and gas, the labelling of plastics as “toxic,” and an emissions cap on fertilizers, saying it constitutes federal overreach. She cited the carbon tax as a measure that adds pressure to Canadians’ already high cost of living.

Smith’s government is pursuing a number of legal challenges against the federal government, saying Ottawa is infringing on provincial jurisdiction. The federal government, meanwhile, says its within its jurisdiction to put forth policies that involve issues of national concern, such climate change.

Ottawa has maintained that most households receive more money back in Climate Action Incentive Payment (CAIP) rebates than they pay due to the carbon tax. Federal Conservatives in turn point to an analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that shows that when the economic impact of the carbon tax is taken into account, most Canadians are worse off.

Enacted Policies and Upcoming Challenges

Smith mentioned some of the policies her government enacted in 2024, including an $8.6 billion plan to speed up school construction, $23 million to build an addiction treatment centre for youth, and a new pay model for family doctors to increase Albertans’ access to primary care.

She said her government still faces other challenges, including a liability of about $40 billion in inactive, suspended, or underperforming oil and gas wells. The province must also find ways to meet additional demands caused by the province’s growing population.

The Canadian Press and Jennifer Cowan contributed to this report.