When Danielle Smith says she wants a reset with Ottawa, she means on her terms alone

It was eight minutes into her 12-minute victory speech when Danielle Smith got into the stuff the United Conservative crowd liked more than anything, other than the victory itself.

The warning to Ottawa — the one she said she hoped Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals were listening to (at a few minutes before 2 a.m Eastern on Tuesday morning).

The premier, now armed with a mandate, urged Ottawa to scrap its plans for a net-zero electrical grid in 12 years, as well as the Liberals' proposed regulations to cap emissions (new window) from the carbon-intensive oil and gas sector.

As premier I cannot allow these contemplated federal policies to be inflicted upon Albertans. I simply can't and I won't, Smith told the crowd, eliciting some of the night's biggest whoops and hollers. If there's one word federal ministers and aides may have keyed in on, it's the harshness of inflicted, reflecting the longstanding conservative message that environmental regulations are designed to punish or stick it to Albertans.

A new leaf, fig or otherwise

The day after the election, Smith spoke in more pragmatic-seeming terms when she was speaking with a round of TV news hosts, rather than boisterous partisans.

I'd love to reset our relationship, the premier told CTV's Vassy Kapelos (new window). "I'd love to be able to work together on things we can agree on, because I don't think the country benefits by seeing Alberta shut its economy down."

On its face, rhetoric about a post-election reset makes it sound like Smith is planning to turn a new leaf in the often combative relationship with Ottawa on the energy/environment file. 

• ANALYSISPopulist or not, Danielle Smith is another challenge to Liberal climate policy (new window)

Now that both Smith's government and Trudeau's share the ambition of a net-zero country and province by 2050, that language seems to convey wishes for a new era of collaboration.

But a listener ought to pay as much attention to the last part of the sentence as the first — about shutting down the economy. One may wonder how publicly framing the government's regulations as shutting down the provincial economy is any less caustic than saying Ottawa policy is inflicted upon Alberta.

She did this in her months as premier before the federal election, this show of simultaneously wielding both the olive branch and flamethrower in federal relations. In February, she wrote one of her many publicly posted letters to Trudeau, offering a new era of cooperation (new window) on emissions reduction.

But she included a non-negotiable condition that Ottawa scrub out several of its core climate policies on clean electricity and an emissions cap that Smith equates to a production cap. The initiatives, she claimed, amount to an unconstitutional and existential threat to the sector.

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To Smith, collaboration is only permissible on the matters that are more complement than challenge for Alberta's oil and gas sector — carbon capture, hydrogen projects (new window) and getting geothermal electricity (new window) from old wells. She'd like Canada to get extra credits on emissions by exporting liquefied natural gas overseas, something that Ottawa discussed years ago (new window) but has since seemed to lose optimism or interest (new window) in.

I'm very optimistic that with technology we'll solve the problem, but if you short-circuit that, and try to achieve an unachievable target too early, you end up chasing the investment away, Smith said in a post-election interview with CBC host David Cochrane.

After four years of United Conservative government under Jason Kenney and now Smith, the federal natural resources and environment ministries should by now be used to the gap between how heated the rhetoric can be, and how much behind-the-scenes work that UCP and Liberal officials do to actually carve out a path that both the oil patch and climate-related ministries can live with.

Kenney's revised industrial carbon tax got Ottawa's sanction, as did the methane emission reduction plan. During the pandemic, Alberta's government was grateful for Ottawa's generous make-work program to remediate old oil and gas wells.

• Alta., Sask. likely to take on Ottawa together over energy policies following UCP win: experts (new window)

Smith, for her part, has also been able to work closely with Ottawa, never offering qualms about the federal health-care funding pact — it's committed her to not pursuing Canada Health Act-violating user pay, she's stated — and she even tried selling the federal promise of $10-a-day childcare (new window) as a UCP campaign promise. During wildfires, the prime minister was very helpful, she noted to Cochrane.

It's hard to imagine the Liberals abandoning the 2035 clean energy plan they want as a stepping stone to full net zero by 2050, or the emissions cap they promised in the last federal election campaign.

Trudeau and ministers might prefer a spirit of negotiation and compromise from Smith in those areas, as well as the sustainable jobs/just transition plan she had bombastically claimed would wipe out every job (new window) in oil and gas, based on one section from an awkwardly worded document last year.

After four years of United Conservative government under Jason Kenney and now Smith, the federal natural resources and environment ministries should by now be used to the gap between how heated the rhetoric can be, and how much behind-the-scenes work that UCP and Liberal officials do to actually carve out a path that both the oil patch and climate-related ministries can live with.

Kenney's revised industrial carbon tax got Ottawa's sanction, as did the methane emission reduction plan. During the pandemic, Alberta's government was grateful for Ottawa's generous make-work program to remediate old oil and gas wells.

• Alta., Sask. likely to take on Ottawa together over energy policies following UCP win: experts (new window)

Smith, for her part, has also been able to work closely with Ottawa, never offering qualms about the federal health-care funding pact — it's committed her to not pursuing Canada Health Act-violating user pay, she's stated — and she even tried selling the federal promise of $10-a-day childcare (new window) as a UCP campaign promise. During wildfires, the prime minister was very helpful, she noted to Cochrane.

It's hard to imagine the Liberals abandoning the 2035 clean energy plan they want as a stepping stone to full net zero by 2050, or the emissions cap they promised in the last federal election campaign.

Trudeau and ministers might prefer a spirit of negotiation and compromise from Smith in those areas, as well as the sustainable jobs/just transition plan she had bombastically claimed would wipe out every job (new window) in oil and gas, based on one section from an awkwardly worded document last year.

Jason Markusoff (new window) · CBC News