Danielle Smith wants climate laws scrapped before Grey Cup. What will she offer in return?

Before the 112th Grey Cup gets underway at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is expecting a major chapter to unfold in the long-running federal-provincial battle over energy policy.

Those policies have been evolving in Alberta over the past number of months. Smith has spoken of a “grand bargain” and has said she expects an agreement by the CFL’s championship game on Nov. 16.

“I expect the federal government to reach an agreement on this [memorandum of understanding] by Grey Cup so we can move on to the next step and begin attracting private capital back to Canada’s natural resource sector,” Smith wrote in a statement in October.

According to the premier, this would include the federal government removing or rewriting what Alberta calls “bad laws,” as well as an agreement to work toward the “ultimate approval” of a pipeline to the B.C. coast.

The premier also wants to see the Pathways Alliance project come to fruition. The major carbon capture and storage project near Cold Lake would see carbon dioxide emissions trapped from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta before being transported 400 kilometres by pipeline to a terminal in the eastern part of the province.

Ottawa, for its part, has signalled that its proposed oil and gas emissions cap, a signature policy under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, could be scrapped. 

In exchange, the federal government would look for strong carbon pricing, methane regulations and greater deployment of carbon capture and storage.

At a news conference before tabling the budget Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said there were a number of steps still to come.

“And when conditions are met, we won't need the cap anymore. But the conditions will have to be met," Champagne said.

So what are those conditions? And how might it affect Alberta’s own industrial carbon tax program?

Alberta was the first jurisdiction in North America to put a price on industrial carbon emissions in 2007. The current version has been in place since 2020, and is referred to as Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER).

Liberal MP Corey Hogan, who represents Calgary Confederation and serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of energy and natural resources, told the Calgary Eyeopener that Alberta’s system is a key piece of the puzzle.

“There is no emissions cap right now. The emissions cap was something that was in draft regulations and what the budget says is we won’t proceed as long as everybody does what they say they’re going to do,” Hogan said.

He said Alberta already has a foundation in place.