Alberta premier says no decision on using Sovereignty Act on 'anything' — including 'just transition'
CBC
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she still has no plans to use her signature legislation despite a growing litany of provincial grievances against Ottawa, including proposed legislation focused on transitioning oil and gas workers as global economies shift into a low-carbon future.
"We haven't made a decision to invoke the Sovereignty Act on anything," Smith said of using the legislation intended to push back against federal policy Alberta deems unconstitutional or harmful.
Keeping the act as a tool in the province's back pocket was the approach signalled in a December interview with CBC News. At that time, the premier said she did not see anything "imminent" that would have required her to invoke the controversial legislation this spring, though that "could always change."
The past number of weeks have brought forward several points of contention between Alberta and Ottawa, including a proposed gun bill amendment and, in recent days, a decision by Parks Canada to close off access to Moraine Lake for those travelling by personal vehicle.
Still, when asked by reporters at a news conference in Calgary when the Sovereignty Act would stop functioning as a sort of symbolic shield, Smith was noncommittal.
"It depends on how far the prime minister's prepared to go and pushing us," she said.
Smith spoke again Tuesday about her concerns with promised legislation from Ottawa focused on renewable energy jobs.
In recent days, the provincial government has made hay of the phrase "just transition," which had been used by the federal government to refer to the legislation, with Smith on Tuesday suggesting it was little more than "social justice" language that served as code for phasing out oil and gas workers.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has said he now prefers to reference the future legislation using the term "sustainable jobs."
WATCH | Natural resources minister says there's a future for oil and gas production:
Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage had made a similar case on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday, asserting that the term "just transition" was "polarizing," pointing to its usage by climate organizations and suggesting it signalled the immediate phase-out of the fossil fuel industry.
"We have to see what comes in the legislation. If they don't back away from that international terminology, we know what we're going to see in the legislation," Savage said on Sunday. "It's all the international terms, and restructuring of economies and phasing out fossil fuels."
Savage added that the Alberta government was working "quite well" with the federal government on various technologies, including on carbon capture, utilization and storage, hydrogen and critical minerals.
Wilkinson said the oil and gas sector isn't going to disappear overnight.
People continue to flock to Banff National Park.
Two Toronto councillors have brought forward a motion to ban raising foreign flags at Toronto City Hall and civic centres.
Thousands of Maritime Electric customers in multiple communities across Queens County are without power Saturday morning.
Three weeks into the conflict in the Middle East, the joint U.S.-Israel onslaught has killed much of Iran's leadership, knocked out much of its ballistic missile capability, sunk nearly all of its navy and, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, has "militarily WON" the war already.
Sometimes to understand the weather, you have to fly straight into it.
When he was a student at what was then known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Andrew Scott had a professor who regularly said that painting was something that could be done until someone dropped dead, while rock n' roll had a best-before date.
Almost a year after a Miramichi woman spoke out about how dealing with an insurance-related company left her in financial ruin, a watchdog commission in the province is formally warning people to stay away.
Getting a job is not the same as it used to be, a young job seeker told CBC Toronto at an employment fair in Oakwood Village earlier this week.
A teenage girl is dead after she was struck by at least one vehicle Friday night in Vaudreuil-Dorion — a suburb located about 45 kilometres west of Montreal.
There was a time when Manitobans used to consider Saskatchewan a rural, underdeveloped backwater.
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) found some reasons to celebrate the 2026-27 provincial budget, but it takes issue with the amount designated for the province's Water Security Agency (WSA).
The family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to re-open the case.
It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed.