Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith at his office in Ottawa on Friday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said there has been significant progress toward a carbon pricing and pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney, as she and the federal government attempt to make the case that federalism can work.
Ms. Smith and Mr. Carney met in Ottawa Friday morning, and the Premier later told reporters that she emerged from those talks far more confident that the two sides can get to an agreement.
The two leaders signed a memorandum of understanding last November aimed at laying out a pathway for an oil pipeline from Alberta to the west coast. They hope to reset a relationship that has long been fraught over frustrations related to Ottawa’s treatment of the oil and gas sector.
Mr. Carney has made his promise to unlock Alberta’s resources a key part of his case against separation, as a petition drive that gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures could trigger a referendum on the issue this fall.
The negotiations – and Ms. Smith’s optimism that a deal is imminent – are also taking place as the Iran war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war have roiled energy markets and added pressure to speed up oil and gas infrastructure to export to foreign markets.
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Separatist activists in Alberta often cite previous Liberal government policies on oil and gas development as deliberate efforts to handcuff provincial growth and autonomy.
Ms. Smith said Albertans need to look at how much things have changed on that score since the Trudeau Liberal years, but acknowledged there are still challenges.
The number of people who doubt a pipeline will ever be built is rising in tandem with the number of people who support independence, she said Friday during a press conference.
“We don’t want that. We want to go the other direction,” she told reporters after delivering a speech at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference, a conservative event.
“So I think that the Prime Minister is motivated. I am certainly motivated.”
The separatist campaign could still be derailed by a legal challenge and an RCMP and Elections Alberta investigation, but its leaders insist it has the credibility to move ahead to a general vote.
Off the top of his meeting with Ms. Smith Friday morning, Mr. Carney reiterated the connection he is making between the MOU and keeping Alberta within the federation.
“We’re working to make Canada work better for Albertans and for all Canadians‚” the Prime Minister said.
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Alberta and Ottawa have already reached agreement on two of four provisions in the MOU that were to be finalized by April 1: streamlining environmental impact assessments and the province cutting methane emissions by 75 per cent from 2014 levels by 2035.
But two other objectives in the MOU, involving the thorny issues of carbon pricing and a CO2-capture project in the oil sands, remain unresolved.
Ms. Smith said a sticking point on carbon pricing – the MOU calls for Alberta to hit $130-a-tonne, up from the current price of $95 – is the timeline to hit the new mark.
But the Premier said she and Mr. Carney had a “meeting of the minds” on that subject Friday and are closer than ever before to an agreement.
Though pressed for details on the timeline and other points of progress, she did not provide any.
In recent days, oil sector executives have come out strongly against the industrial carbon price, saying it makes Canada less competitive.
But Ms. Smith said she thinks the sector will still be willing to make investments, considering the global demand for oil.
“Yes, carbon prices will make us slightly higher cost than other jurisdictions, but we’re trying to land the price at a level where it’s not going to make an enormous difference in those investment decisions,” she said.