Latest news with #SovereigntyAct
CBC
15-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Alberta separatism threats spur First Nation to revive lawsuit against Sovereignty Act
A First Nation whose land spans the Alberta-Saskatchewan border says Alberta's "growing separatist agenda" has spurred them to revive a more than two year-old lawsuit against the province. The lawsuit was originally filed with the Court of King's Bench less than two weeks after the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act was passed in December 2022, but was on hold until Wednesday, say Onion Lake Cree Nation lawyers. "Our decision to advance our litigation on the Alberta Sovereignty Act is in direct response to the ongoing separatist talks happening," said Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis at a news conference in Edmonton Thursday. "Our message to Premier Smith is that these are treaty lands. They are not yours to take, and we're prepared to go to court to defend our constitutionally protected rights under treaty." The lawsuit claims the Sovereignty Act undermines and infringes upon Onion Lake Cree Nation's constitutional treaty rights, and seeks temporary and permanent injunctions that the act can not be held against the First Nation or its people. The First Nation said the law and several bills currently in the legislature fuel Alberta separatism, among them Bill 54 which would make it easier for citizens to initiate referendums on issues including separation from Canada. "Premier Smith's Sovereignty Act combined with many of the significant changes with two other laws sends a clear signal that her government is willing to manipulate laws, intimidate First Nations and control public opinion to push the separatist agenda," said Lewis. "The Sovereignty Act has always been about undermining federal authority and asserting provincial control. This goes against our treaty relationship with the Crown." The Alberta premier's office did not respond to a request for comment by time of publishing. Bill 54, the Election Statutes Amendment Act, has sparked resistance from many Indigenous leaders in the province since it was tabled two weeks ago. The bill would reduce the number of signatures required to trigger a referendum and extend the signature collection period to 90 days from 60. On Wednesday, the province made changes to Bill 54, adding a clause that no separation referendum question could threaten the existing treaty rights of Indigenous people in Alberta. Lewis said it's something he's heard before during his years of negotiating agreements with governments. "That clause is always entered, but guess what? They don't honour it," Lewis said. "Pure and simple, it's nothing…. It doesn't mean nothing to me." Lawyers for Onion Lake Cree Nation said the province has until June 6 to file a statement of defence against their lawsuit. The First Nation launched a similar lawsuit against Saskatchewan in April 2023, arguing the province's Saskatchewan First Act also violates treaty rights.
Calgary Herald
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
'No right talking the way she is': Alberta First Nations chiefs united after emergency meeting denouncing separation talks
Article content Leaders of First Nations across Alberta slammed Premier Danielle Smith for not putting talks of a separation referendum to rest and emphasized their opposition to Bill 54, which would lower the threshold for citizen initiatives. Article content Article content First Nations chiefs from Treaty No. 6, 7 and 8 gathered in Edmonton for an emergency meeting, and all stood firm on denouncing any movement towards a referendum on separation. Chiefs of the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nation said they cancelled a meeting scheduled with Smith for Tuesday and will remain that way until she 'changes her tone.' Article content Article content Chief Kelsey Jacko of Cold Lake First Nations said for the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 to meet with Smith, she needs to start thinking about First Nations and 'lift my people out of poverty.' Article content Article content 'If you want true reconciliation, give us a share of resources. Our water is suffering. Our animals are suffering out there. It's frustrating when everybody thinks about economics, and then where we're left out of it,' Jacko said. Article content 'She has no right talking the way she is because we are treaty people.' Article content At the emergency meeting, Treaty chiefs addressed concerns over Bill 54 and the Sovereignty Act, prompting First Nations to band together and emphasize their historical and ongoing presence on the land. Article content Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro of the Mikisew Cree First Nation who penned a cease and desist letter in late April to Smith accusing her of stoking separatist movement, threw Bill 54 in the air and said 'you're garbage' to the papers. Article content At an earlier press conference on Tuesday, Smith said the province was a 'number of steps' away from a referendum on separation and said the legislation is supposed to ensure the signature threshold for citizen-initiated referendums is 'reasonable.' Article content Article content 'You can't have a referendum on things that are enshrined in our various constitutional conventions and laws, and court decisions. So I'll wait and see what sort of referendum questions come forward, but my expectation would be that those (Treaty rights) would be honoured,' Smith said. Article content Article content Chief Troy Knowlton of Piikani Nation said any talk of separation is 'really insanity' and said he spoke to Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson on Monday and told him the rhetoric being promoted by the province was 'taken right out of President Trump's playbook.' Article content 'The rhetoric and insanity of separation here in Alberta has united First Nations (not just) on this land, but all across Canada. So I want to thank you, Danielle Smith, for Bill 54, because today we stand united. We're not going anywhere and if you feel that you have problems with First Nations you could leave,' Knowlton said. Article content Alberta NDP Indigenous Relations critic Brooks Arcand-Paul put forward a motion in the legislature on Tuesday to respect Treaty rights and called on Smith to denounce separation. The motion did not receive unanimous consent.
Canada Standard
06-05-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
Alberta Court Case Will Drive Off Investment, Add Uncertainty to Power Market, Pembina Institute Warns
The Alberta government is adding more uncertainty to the province's electricity market and driving away investment in a modernized system by launching a constitutional challenge to Ottawa's Clean Electricity Regulations, the Pembina Institute warned in a statement last week. When the former Trudeau government published the final regulations late last year, the revised version postponed the deadline to fully decarbonize Canada's power grids from 2035 to 2050, scaled back the power sector's mid-century emissions reduction target from 342 to 181 million tonnes, offered provinces greater flexibility to run back-up gas plants, and earmarked more than C$60 billion in financial support to expand the clean electricity system. But at a news conference last Thursday announcing the court action, Premier Danielle Smith still maintained the regulations will harm the affordability and reliability of Alberta's electricity grid, which is currently powered largely by natural gas. Smith, who invoked her controversial Sovereignty Act for the first time in 2023 against an earlier draft of the regulations, said Ottawa's goals are too far-fetched and a breach of provincial jurisdiction, The Canadian Press reports. "This is about protecting the lives and livelihoods of Albertans," Smith said, saying the regulations would increase electricity costs by more than 30%. "We will not accept the reckless and dangerous policies-policies that will harm our economy, stifle our energy industry, jeopardize the reliability of our electricity grid, and raise electricity prices for Albertans." But in a statement Thursday, the Pembina Institute's senior electricity analyst Jason Wang said Smith's objections "are based on unpublished analysis from the Alberta Electric System Operator and are unchanged from the concerns that Alberta repeatedly raised in 2023 and 2024 during engagement with the Government of Canada." Although the final version of the Clean Electricity Regulations addressed the province's specific issues with the draft rules, "Alberta continues to cite these same concerns, as if no such collaboration between it and the federal government ever took place." View our latest digests Wang added that the court action puts Alberta out of step with an accelerating shift away from fossil-fuelled electricity. "At a time when other governments across this country and across the world are attracting investment in low-cost, secure, clean power, and modernizing their electricity grids to be fit for the needs of the next century, Alberta is introducing yet more uncertainty to its electricity market," he said. "This will further undermine investment confidence at the worst possible time." On Thursday, Smith maintained the deep concessions in the final regulations mean little, CP writes, because Ottawa is still overstepping. "It violates the Constitution, and we're going to argue that vigorously in court," she said. Abandoning the regulations was one of the nine demands Smith laid out for the next federal government in advance of last Monday's election. Speaking just three days after the vote, Smith said she'd received no indication that the new government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney will take action on the file. "It depends very much on whether we have pragmatic Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as our prime minister, or whether we have environmental extremist, keep it in the ground, phase out fossil fuels... Mark Carney as prime minister," she said. "I don't know the answer to that yet." Carney's office did not respond to a request for comment. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters that Smith seems more concerned about fighting with Ottawa than striking a deal beneficial for both levels of government. "Three days in with no minister in place, no one to fight against, she launches this lawsuit," Nenshi said, referring to how Carney has yet to appoint a new cabinet. "If she sat down with the prime minister and made a deal, we would have proper regulations that would bring certainty for investment to Alberta within the next month. Instead, she's going to take years." Nenshi agreed the federal regulations would be punishing for Alberta, but said Smith's insistence on taking Ottawa to court rather than negotiating will only make that punishment worse. "We heard (Carney) talk about Canada as a clean and conventional energy superpower," Nenshi said. "So rather than insulting him and saying, 'You're lying,' why not give him an opportunity to prove that he wasn't lying?" On Monday, Smith said she would convene and chair a "sovereignty panel" to consider "how the province can protect itself from perceived economic incursions from the federal Liberal government," CBC reports. The most popular proposals will be put to a referendum in 2026. "The world looks at us like we've lost our minds," she said. "We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us, while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch." While Smith blamed that state of affairs on "unbearable" attacks by the federal government, the historical record tells a rather different story. In a report issued in March, the Pembina Institute's Jason Wang said Alberta is right to focus on the affordability and reliability of its power grid, but is "swimming against the tide by focusing on gas to run its grid long into the future." That strategy "erodes its attractiveness as an investment destination-given that we know demand for low-cost, clean power is going to keep growing as new power-hungry industries, like data centres, look for places to set up business." In his statement Thursday, Wang said the Alberta government has spent the last two years stifling the province's renewable energy sector "under repeated layers of regulatory and policy uncertainty," while failing to fully draw on "the range of tools at its disposal to build a grid fit for the future-such as renewables, interties, transmission, and demand-side measures; exactly the technologies that the CER guides investment towards." Rather than presenting "any alternate plan for its future electricity system," he added, "the province is claiming that a continuation of the status quo gas-fired power is the only solution to reliability and affordability. In the meantime, Alberta's communities are missing out on billions of dollars of investment and tax revenues that clean electricity projects would bring." This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025. Source: The Energy Mix
Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Alberta Court Case Will Drive Off Investment, Add Uncertainty to Power Market, Pembina Institute Warns
The Alberta government is adding more uncertainty to the province's electricity market and driving away investment in a modernized system by launching a constitutional challenge to Ottawa's Clean Electricity Regulations, the Pembina Institute warned in a statement last week. When the former Trudeau government published the final regulations late last year, the revised version postponed the deadline to fully decarbonize Canada's power grids from 2035 to 2050, scaled back the power sector's mid-century emissions reduction target from 342 to 181 million tonnes, offered provinces greater flexibility to run back-up gas plants, and earmarked more than C$60 billion in financial support to expand the clean electricity system. But at a news conference last Thursday announcing the court action, Premier Danielle Smith still maintained the regulations will harm the affordability and reliability of Alberta's electricity grid, which is currently powered largely by natural gas. Smith, who invoked her controversial Sovereignty Act for the first time in 2023 against an earlier draft of the regulations, said Ottawa's goals are too far-fetched and a breach of provincial jurisdiction, The Canadian Press reports. "This is about protecting the lives and livelihoods of Albertans," Smith said, saying the regulations would increase electricity costs by more than 30%. "We will not accept the reckless and dangerous policies-policies that will harm our economy, stifle our energy industry, jeopardize the reliability of our electricity grid, and raise electricity prices for Albertans." But in a statement Thursday, the Pembina Institute's senior electricity analyst Jason Wang said Smith's objections "are based on unpublished analysis from the Alberta Electric System Operator and are unchanged from the concerns that Alberta repeatedly raised in 2023 and 2024 during engagement with the Government of Canada." Although the final version of the Clean Electricity Regulations addressed the province's specific issues with the draft rules, "Alberta continues to cite these same concerns, as if no such collaboration between it and the federal government ever took place." Wang added that the court action puts Alberta out of step with an accelerating shift away from fossil-fuelled electricity. "At a time when other governments across this country and across the world are attracting investment in low-cost, secure, clean power, and modernizing their electricity grids to be fit for the needs of the next century, Alberta is introducing yet more uncertainty to its electricity market," he said. "This will further undermine investment confidence at the worst possible time." On Thursday, Smith maintained the deep concessions in the final regulations mean little, CP writes, because Ottawa is still overstepping. "It violates the Constitution, and we're going to argue that vigorously in court," she said. Abandoning the regulations was one of the nine demands Smith laid out for the next federal government in advance of last Monday's election. Speaking just three days after the vote, Smith said she'd received no indication that the new government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney will take action on the file. "It depends very much on whether we have pragmatic Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as our prime minister, or whether we have environmental extremist, keep it in the ground, phase out fossil fuels... Mark Carney as prime minister," she said. "I don't know the answer to that yet." Carney's office did not respond to a request for comment. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters that Smith seems more concerned about fighting with Ottawa than striking a deal beneficial for both levels of government. "Three days in with no minister in place, no one to fight against, she launches this lawsuit," Nenshi said, referring to how Carney has yet to appoint a new cabinet. "If she sat down with the prime minister and made a deal, we would have proper regulations that would bring certainty for investment to Alberta within the next month. Instead, she's going to take years." Nenshi agreed the federal regulations would be punishing for Alberta, but said Smith's insistence on taking Ottawa to court rather than negotiating will only make that punishment worse. "We heard (Carney) talk about Canada as a clean and conventional energy superpower," Nenshi said. "So rather than insulting him and saying, 'You're lying,' why not give him an opportunity to prove that he wasn't lying?" On Monday, Smith said she would convene and chair a "sovereignty panel" to consider "how the province can protect itself from perceived economic incursions from the federal Liberal government," CBC reports. The most popular proposals will be put to a referendum in 2026. "The world looks at us like we've lost our minds," she said. "We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us, while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch." While Smith blamed that state of affairs on "unbearable" attacks by the federal government, the historical record tells a rather different story. In a report issued in March, the Pembina Institute's Jason Wang said Alberta is right to focus on the affordability and reliability of its power grid, but is "swimming against the tide by focusing on gas to run its grid long into the future." That strategy "erodes its attractiveness as an investment destination-given that we know demand for low-cost, clean power is going to keep growing as new power-hungry industries, like data centres, look for places to set up business." In his statement Thursday, Wang said the Alberta government has spent the last two years stifling the province's renewable energy sector "under repeated layers of regulatory and policy uncertainty," while failing to fully draw on "the range of tools at its disposal to build a grid fit for the future-such as renewables, interties, transmission, and demand-side measures; exactly the technologies that the CER guides investment towards." Rather than presenting "any alternate plan for its future electricity system," he added, "the province is claiming that a continuation of the status quo gas-fired power is the only solution to reliability and affordability. In the meantime, Alberta's communities are missing out on billions of dollars of investment and tax revenues that clean electricity projects would bring." This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025. Source: The Energy Mix
Toronto Star
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Danielle Smith again asks Mark Carney for a ‘reset' as Alberta launches challenge of clean energy rules
Premier Danielle Smith announced on Thursday morning Alberta would challenge the constitutionality of the national clean energy regulations it claimed would see its residents 'freeze in the dark.' In her latest salvo against the rules, Smith painted a colourful picture of what she says would happen if 'Ottawa has its way,' and the regulations, which would push electricity generation to net zero by 2035, come to pass: 'Families would be bundled up in their winter coats while sitting down for dinner, a dinner lit by flashlight or candle, as they wait for the rolling blackouts to move on to the next community,' she said. 'There would be no street lights working to light up your way home through the blinding blizzard.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It's Smith's latest strike against any federal attempt to cut emissions from the national power grids. Among Smith's moves are Alberta's Sovereignty Act, which the province says allows them to ignore federal laws it deems unconstitutional, and an $8 million ad campaign that rolled out in four provinces. While Carney has not spoken specifically about the clean energy regulations (and did not respond to a request for comment) the Liberal platform does mention the need to build out the east-west electricity grid and 'enhance connectivity to low-emissions electricity.' While questions remain about what that means, there is hope that Carney, who was raised in Alberta, is more open to traditional energy development, as evidenced by his promises to cut regulatory timelines and make Canada an 'energy superpower.' Smith said the province will challenge the constitutionality of the regulations in the Alberta Court of Appeal. The crux of the government's argument is that electricity generation falls under provincial jurisdiction and the federal government is overstepping. (The federal government, for its part, has long argued that emissions reduction is squarely in their lane.) Alberta's path to net zero is complicated by the fact the province is more reliant on natural gas — which produces emissions — for electricity generation than other provinces. According to the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), the non-profit that oversees the provincial grid, 64 per cent of power in 2022 came from natural gas. (In Ontario, for example, natural gas was used for about 10 per cent of the electricity that same year.) In addition, Alberta phased out its last coal-fired plant in 2024, six years ahead of schedule, in a transition that was a major win for emissions reduction, but meant more reliance on natural gas. A report from AESO also found that the federal regulations would post a 'significant risk' to the reliability and affordability of Alberta's grid. But as Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, wrote on his blog around the time Alberta was threatening to use the Sovereignty Act, 'the provincial government does itself no favours with performative bluster and policies such as the recent renewables moratorium, which serve only to drive away investment and cast doubt on the sincerity of its clean energy commitments.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW While Alberta had once been a hotbed of renewable development, the Smith government put a seven-month moratorium on new projects starting in 2023 while they considered the effects of solar and wind projects on agriculture, the environment and on the province's 'pristine viewscapes.' But according to the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank, that pause caused so much uncertainty that 53 projects were abandoned. At the time, a government minister told CBC that the analysis was ' misinformation.' While the pause on new wind and solar projects has since been lifted, the projects now face new location rules that keep them away from agricultural land and a buffer zone around mountains and designated scenic areas. This latest tussle over power comes as Smith repeated her call for Carney to 'reset' his relationship with the prairie province. On Thursday she again called for him to 'immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.' While this week's election saw the Liberals get its highest vote share in Alberta in decades — about 28 per cent — the province largely stuck to its conservative roots and will only send two Liberal MPs to Ottawa. And Smith is not the only leader mulling a renewed relationship with Carney. Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek released an open letter this week in which she invited Carney to Calgary, 'the city that fuels Canada's economy.' In addition to imploring him to consider funding for municipalities and infrastructure, she also asked him to learn more about Alberta's energy industry. 'We are a strong nation with energy resources the world needs,' she wrote. 'That's the message we should be delivering nationally. I urge your government to spend more time in Alberta.' Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Yes, I'd also like to receive customized content suggestions and promotional messages from the Star. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Politics Headlines Newsletter You're signed up! 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