Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on March 13.Todd Korol/The Canadian Press
Quebec has emerged as one of Alberta’s key allies in its fight against what the Western province considers inappropriate meddling in its affairs by Ottawa, Premier Danielle Smith told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board.
In a sweeping discussion ranging from her frustrations with the federal government to her pick for who will score the deciding goal for the Edmonton Oilers should they win the Stanley Cup, Ms. Smith said Ottawa’s decision to send $900-million to Quebec, as part of the housing accelerator program, caught her attention last fall.
“I just thought: ‘How did they manage to do that?’” Ms. Smith said during the hour-long meeting on Thursday. Ottawa established the $4-billion pot with plans to directly fund municipalities, irking provinces that felt the federal government was usurping their power by negotiating with cities. Quebec proved it did not have to be that way.
Tension between Alberta and Ottawa centre on the province’s oil and gas industry and its carbon emissions, but stretch as far as bickering over funding for school lunches. Ms. Smith has described Ottawa’s desire to negotiate with cities over housing as the last straw. And so rather than just decrying special treatment for Quebec, Ms. Smith is increasingly turning to it for tips on how to legislatively fortify her own province against what she considers jurisdictional intrusions from the federal government.
After the housing accelerator announcement, Ms. Smith said she reached out to Quebec’s Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, who she said informed her that the province had a law preventing the federal government from talking directly to municipalities. The minister, she said, printed off a copy of Quebec’s legislation and gave it to her at the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax in November.
The Alberta government, in April, introduced a bill giving the province the power to declare funding deals between its municipalities and the federal government invalid.
“I just wrote a letter to Premier [François] Legault thanking his officials for assisting us in the drafting of that legislation,” Ms. Smith said.
Alberta’s legislation has yet to be tested. Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek vowed to continue to negotiate with the federal government for cash to help build the infrastructure necessary to address the housing crisis.
Ms. Smith said Alberta will continue to look east for guidance.
“What you’ll see is that we’ll be inclined to follow the same pattern as Quebec any time that there is a federal program that interferes in our jurisdiction,” she said. The Premier reiterated that she is not opposed to working with Ottawa on programs such as school lunches or dental coverage, but she said the federal government must stop unilaterally imposing policy when it infringes on Alberta’s turf – and ends up costing the province money.
“The problem is the federal government blunders into our area, doesn’t talk to us, and then comes forward with half-baked proposals,” she said. Ottawa then pays “only a fraction” of the costs and expects the provinces to pick up the rest of the tab. “We’re just not going to do that.”
Ms. Smith won Alberta’s 2023 spring election, after becoming Premier when she was elected Leader of the ruling United Conservative Party in the fall of 2022. Her pitch in both campaigns was heavy on pushing back against Ottawa. She is especially sour on Steven Guilbeault, the federal Environment Minister, and this largely defines her rocky relationship with the federal government.
“There are some positives but the negative is really centred on the relationship with Stephen Guilbeault, who is an ideologue,” she said. “We tried to work with him, but he continues to push the envelope on things that are really harmful to our economy, whether it’s the net-zero electricity grid, which we cannot do by 2035. Yeah, whether it’s net-zero cars, whether it is the emissions cap on oil and gas.”
But Alberta’s relationship with the federal Liberals, Ms. Smith said, is not “uniformly bad.” She pointed to the warmth between her and the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, who is from Quebec.
“I have a tremendous relationship, actually, with François-Philippe Champagne, who I text regularly and I meet with whenever he’s in town,” Ms. Smith said. “And he has been very instrumental in assisting us and getting to the finish line on some big net-zero projects.”
During the editorial board meeting, she also pumped up the Edmonton Oilers, the only remaining Canadian team vying for the Stanley Cup. Asked who would score the winning goal, Ms. Smith passed on Oilers superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in favour of defenceman Evan Bouchard.
“He’s been doing really well.”