Alberta to Enforce Sovereignty Act in Response to Federal Clean Electricity Regulations
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has confirmed she will invoke the province’s Sovereignty Act on Nov. 27 to protect its power companies from Ottawa’s Clean Electricity Regulations (CER). Speaking at a morning radio show on Nov. 25, Ms, Smith said the federal plan to impose achievement of a net-zero electricity system by 2035 is not only “unachievable” but also risks wrecking her province’s power grid. “We will not put our operators at risk of going to jail if they do not achieve the unachievable,” said Ms. Smith in an interview aired on the “Your Province. Your Premier” program on 630 CHED and 770 CHQR. “We have to have a reliable grid. We have to have an affordable grid. And we’re going to make sure that we defend our constitutional jurisdiction to do that.” During the radio call-in show on Nov. 25, Ms. Smith said the CER disregards Section 92 of the Constitution Act, which says the “development, conservation and management of sites and facilities in the province for the generation and production of electrical energy” fall under provincial jurisdiction. ‘Stay in Their Lane’ In October, the Trudeau government was dealt a blow when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal Impact Assessment Act, which evaluates how major projects such as coal mines and oilsands plants impact the environment, is largely unconstitutional. A month later, on Nov. 16, a Federal Court judge struck down a cabinet order to classify all plastic products as toxic as “unreasonable and unconstitutional.” Ms. Smith noted both cases in which the federal Liberals lost. “They’ve lost two court cases now,” the premier said on the radio show. “[The courts are] saying they have to stay in their lane. Now, their lane is clearly not electricity.” In response to the Federal Court ruling in November, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said on Nov. 20 that his government will appeal the decision. He argued that “the body of scientific evidence showing the impacts on human health, on the environment, of plastic pollution is undebatable.” At a press conference on Oct. 26, Mr. Guilbeault told reporters that Ottawa intended to amend its Impact Assessment Act and seek the “shortest path forward” to bring the act into compliance with the Constitution.
The minister did not give a timeline or clarify what he believed needed to be changed but seemed optimistic that the approach would work. “I think what the Supreme Court told us is that there are elements of the act in its current form, where the federal government could surpass its authorities,” he said at the time. Besides Alberta, Ottawa’s net-zero targets also received pushback from Saskatchewan. In August, Premier Scott Moe said the CER is “simply not achievable.” “We will not ask our residents to pay the extraordinary price for the federal government’s divisive policies, nor will we risk the integrity of our provincial power grid to defy the laws of thermodynamics,” Mr. Moe said in a statement posted on X on Aug. 10. ‘Maverick’ On Nov. 16, Mr. Moe proceeded to introduce a bill to have SaskEnergy remove the federal carbon tax from residential customers’ natural gas bills starting Jan. 1, 2024. The move was made to protect Crown corporation SaskEnergy and all of its current and former directors, officers, employees, and other associates from any legal consequences of not remitting the carbon tax.
During the radio show, Ms. Smith said Alberta had tried to work collaboratively with the federal government with a net-zero emissions plan by 2050. “I have to tell you, I don’t want to do this. I really did, from the very first conversation I had with Justin Trudeau, say I wanted to work with him on this. We put together the table with the negotiators so we could find areas of common ground,” she said. Mr. Guilbeault’s approach, however, has made it challenging for her province to get on board, the premier said. “Steven Guilbeault, I don’t know, he’s a maverick. He doesn’t seem to care about the law, doesn’t care about the Constitution. I do. And we’re going to make sure that we assert that,” Ms. Smith said. The Epoch Times reached out to the offices of Mr. Guilbeault and Mr. Trudeau for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time. Chandra Philip, Matthew Horwood, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source link
