Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was smiling as she announced her government’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s Oct. 13 decision striking down parts of the federal Impact Assessment Act as unconstitutional.
“Today is a great day,” she told a news conference. “We are extremely pleased. … This legislation—also known as the ‘no more pipelines act’ but I’ve been calling it ‘the don’t build anything anywhere act'—is an existential threat to Alberta’s economy.”
The Supreme Court said the legislation, known as Bill C-69 when it was being deliberated in Parliament, is “largely unconstitutional.” The legislation imposes additional environmental assessment requirements on infrastructure projects which the opposing provinces had said infringes on their jurisdiction, and impedes investments due to additional regulatory burdens and costs.
“It is already responsible for the loss of tens of billions of dollars in investment, and thousands of jobs across the country,” Ms. Smith said.
She pointed to the 2020 decision by Teck Resources to cancel a proposed $20 billion oil sands mine in Alberta, with the loss of thousands of potential jobs, as one example.
“They ignored the provinces, they ignored the Senate, and they ignored the many partners who opposed this unconstitutional law all along and created the uncertainty that led to the withdrawal of projects like Teck’s Frontier mine,” said Ms. Smith.
She called on Ottawa to stop encroaching into provincial jurisdiction and instead work with the provinces.
“Today’s ruling represents an opportunity for all provinces to stop that bleeding, rebuild investor confidence, and attract those jobs back into our economies.”
However, the federal government has already announced it will re-work the legislation and bring it back.
“We will now take this back and work quickly to improve the legislation through Parliament. ... We understand the importance of timeliness in determining a path forward.”
But the Alberta premier warned tinkering with the legislation is not good enough.
“If they think that they’re going to tinker with this and keep us tied up for the next six years, well, I can tell you, we’re just not going to put up with that,” she said.
She argued the ruling makes it clear non-renewable resource development is the jurisdiction of the provinces, including oil and gas development and hard rock mining.
“Today’s decision significantly strengthens our legal position as we work to protect Albertans and all Canadians from federal intrusion into our provincial jurisdiction,” Ms. Smith said, adding Alberta will use its Sovereignty Act if need be.
“They cannot just drop new policy on our head and make us spend another six years going through the court to be told once again that they’ve been acting illegally.”
She also expressed frustration with a federal government that she believes has repeatedly moved the environmental goalposts.
Uncertainty
Ms. Smith argued the Supreme Court ruling opens the door to other projects that have been held back by uncertainty from the legislation, such as building more natural gas plants to generate electricity. For months, she has expressed concern that the Alberta electrical grid needs more “baseline” power sources like natural gas, to offset the unreliable nature of solar and wind power.”“Why in the world would I only have 41,000 megawatts of solar and wind in the queue [waiting for approval] and virtually no natural gas? … That is 100 percent because of the uncertainty that the federal government created from this act,” she said.
“We know that we need to bring on more natural gas, and we will commission more natural gas. I suppose they can step in and say ‘no, you can’t,’ and try to take us to a court again and drag this out for another six years, but I think the court ruling is pretty clear.”
Ms. Smith wasn’t the only leader celebrating. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has also been critical of Ottawa’s plan for a net zero electrical grid by 2035.
That was a point also taken up by Ms. Smith.
“We call on the federal government to learn from the Supreme Court’s decision that their ongoing efforts to seize regulatory control over the electricity grid and natural resource sectors of the provinces is unconstitutional. And it’s illegal,” she said.
“They will damage our economy, they will stifle development, they will erode constitutional rights, and they will ultimately harm all Canadians by putting jobs at risk and making life more expensive.”
Ms. Smith called for a more cooperative working relationship.
“We hope today’s decision provides an opportunity for a reset in the ongoing federal-provincial discussions on these issues,” she said.
