Why Danielle Smith has eased off the 'Kill Bill C-69' language in the Carney era

Premier Danielle Smith wasn't doing anything politically revolutionary when she demanded the repeal of Ottawa's environmental assessments act during the federal election campaign. Then she demanded it again, many times, when the Conservatives who promised to do so lost and the Mark Carney Liberals won.

It was a longstanding, years-old cry from Alberta leaders, ever since the moment that the Trudeau-era Bill C-69 — what former premier Jason Kenney dubbed the "no more pipelines act" — was first passed in 2019 (and became repealable).

Then, a few weeks ago, Smith's tune began to change about the legislation that has been strongly contested by energy companies.

Her rhetoric softened from urging the guillotine to a blade with more precision on the law now known as the Impact Assessment Act (IAA).

Since June, she's thrown in alternative recommendations.

They include: "overhauling" in a June 17 comment; "substantially revised" in a July 2 reply to a reporter; and "repealing or amending" in a July 7 joint press conference with Ontario's premier — and the same dual-option language at Tuesday's announcement at the premier's summit.

Smith put some rationale behind her refined stance in a mid-June interview on Rosemary Barton Live, when she expressed support for Carney's major bill to expedite project approvals, but reiterated her hopes he'd still address the IAA.

"Let's be practical: the federal government has jurisdiction for linear projects that go cross-border … whether it's pipeline or whether it's transmission lines but … there's measures that they've put into the bill that are not technical, that are ideological and that don't really have any measurables around them and create confusion," Smith said.

"So that's part of the reason why C-69 needs to be substantially revised."

But Smith didn't explain her shift in tone that day, or otherwise.

It was a quiet pivot after years of a provincial fight for the outright demise of legislation that became so notorious that protestors made Quentin Tarantino-style posters demanding "Kill Bill C-69."

When asked about the moderated message, the premier's office wouldn't say there's been a change from her past language.

But the revised tone that observers have noticed could be Alberta's premier offering a spirit of greater compromise, in line with Carney's own different direction than his Liberal predecessor Justin Trudeau.

It could also be a reflection that the oil and gas companies don't actually want the Impact Assessment Act swept off the books.