Alberta invoking Sovereignty Act in fight against Ottawa’s proposed emissions cap

Call it the Sovereignty Act edition of the “Scrap the Cap” campaign.Alberta’s UCP government is bringing a motion to the legislature that argues Ottawa proposed cap on oil and gas emissions is unconstitutional.

“We’re fighting back with every weapon in our arsenal,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Tuesday. “The Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act was designed to protect our province from unconstitutional interference, and now we’re going to use it again.”

Smith says the federal cap would cripple Alberta’s oil and gas economy and the province has a constitutional right to develop its resources.

Alberta already bought $7 million worth of ads demanding the cap be scrapped – a campaign aimed at informing Canadians about the negative ramifications of the proposed cap, which Smith has claimed is “ideological” and “irresponsible.”

Now the UCP will use its Sovereignty Act to push back against what the governing UCP says is a production cap on the province’s oil and gas sector. The Alberta premier says any of the suggested changes would first need approval by a majority vote in the legislature.

This is the second use of the Sovereignty Act. The first happened about a year ago to fight Ottawa’s plan for a net-zero electricity grid by 2035.

“Well look, they’ve pushed us to the limit,” Smith explained. “We’ve been trying to negotiate with them now ever since the moment I’ve had my first conversation with Justin Trudeau where I told him that we want to align on their objectives to meet carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Premier Smith’s motion plans to include a legal challenge to the cap, passing legislation to give the province exclusive authority over emissions data and banning federal employees from designated oil and gas facilities.