Smith lays down Alberta’s demands to Carney in first meeting

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to make it clear that Alberta would not tolerate further mistreatment from Ottawa.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to make it clear that Alberta would not tolerate further mistreatment from Ottawa.

“I made it clear that Albertans will no longer tolerate the way we’ve been treated by the federal Liberals over the past 10 years,” said Smith.

While referring to the upcoming federal election, Smith asked Canadians to support “the party and candidates” who have opposed federal overreach in the last decade.

“With the federal election about to be called, I encourage all Albertans to get involved in what is likely one of the most pivotal and important elections in our nation’s history, and to support the party and candidates that have consistently advocated for freeing Alberta from federal overreach and the repeated economic attacks our province has faced from Ottawa over the past 10 years,” wrote Smith.

Notably, Carney only appointed one minister in his new cabinet from Western Canada, Jonathan Wilkinson. Wilkinson was named energy minister and he was elected as the MP for North Vancouver. None of Carney’s ministers were elected in Alberta, although Carney lived in Edmonton as a child.

During Smith’s meeting with Carney, which came at his request, she provided an extensive list of demands for the next prime minister — regardless of the election’s outcome. She asked that her demands be addressed during the first six months after the election “to avoid an unprecedented national unity crisis.”

The cited national unity crisis comes amid a growing movement for Alberta to become the 51st state and rekindled Western alienation.

Most of the requests are things Alberta has previously fought for, often in court against the federal government. Some of the demands include scrapping the oil and gas emissions cap and the Clean Electricity Regulations. Smith also called for an end to the prohibition of single-use plastics and for Ottawa to abandon the net-zero vehicle sales mandate.

Some of the demands echoed the same ones made by the country’s largest energy companies, such as killing Bill C-69, also known popularly as the No New Pipelines Act and lifting the tanker ban off the B.C. coast.

While some premiers have emphasized retaliatory tariffs in the ongoing tariff war against U.S. President Donald Trump, Smith indicated that she’d play no part when energy is involved. She said that Alberta would not accept an export tax or any restriction on Alberta’s oil going to the U.S.

Additionally, she hinted that Alberta no longer wants to play a part in the federal equalization scheme.

“Our province is no longer agreeable to subsidizing other large provinces who are fully capable of funding themselves,” said Smith.

In her final jab, Smith blamed the federal mismanagement of Jasper and Banff national parks for the wildfire that decimated Jasper and is actively endangering Banff, urging that the situation be handled immediately.

Carney held an unrelated press conference in Edmonton shortly after Smith’s statement, where he announced the elimination of GST on new homes. Poilievre had made the same pledge months earlier. Reporters questioned him about Smith’s demands.

Carney said he was planning to meet with all of the country’s premiers and determine what everyone collaboratively agrees are the country’s national energy priorities and then use the entire power of the federal government and its legislative powers to advance the agenda.

He was also asked why he supported bringing or raising an industrial carbon tax and an emissions cap to Alberta, while the United States is deregulating and eliminating taxes, which could influence companies to emigrate.

Carney said that CUSMA must be renegotiated because the tariffs are outside its legal framework. He also said that he was interested in increasing the competitiveness of Canada’s energy sector but did not say how implementing taxes would accomplish this.