Alberta premier says net-zero ad campaign intended to influence Atlantic MPs

The premier of Alberta says there was a straightforward agenda behind her government’s $8-million advertising campaign to educate Canadians and Albertans on the impacts of proposed new federal emissions regulations.

“One of the things that we know is that decisions are being made in Ottawa that impact our province in particular,” Danielle Smith said Monday at the completion of a two-day Canadian premiers meeting at the Halifax Convention Centre.

“We wanted to make sure that every MP knew our concern with the approach that was being taken so that they could understand why it is that we wanted to chart a different course, trying to get the federal government aligned with our approach, which is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

‘We wanted to make sure that every MP knew our concern with the approach that was being taken so that they could understand why it is that we wanted to chart a different course, trying to get the federal government aligned with our approach, which is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.’

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

“That’s the indication that we get from our power producers that 2050 is achievable but 2035 (the federal goal) is not.”

Smith said her No. 1 concern has to be a reliable and affordable power grid for her province “and we have to be able to bring on more base-load power and now, because of the uncertainty, that’s not happening, so that’s what we’re trying to do, is educate the federal politicians about why it is they need to make a change.”

The Alberta advertising campaign that wrapped up in early November after running for just more than a month involved a range of television, radio, newspaper, web and billboard ads and coincided with the federal government’s public input period on net-zero regulations.

Imagine no power to run your internet or charge your phone. Ask the Feds why they are rushing to do something by 2035 when the experts agree that it can’t feasibly be done.

Learn more: https://t.co/ZS7MNqeiM8 pic.twitter.com/86CSl7u2bC

— @tellthefeds (@TellTheFeds) November 2, 2023

Aside from Alberta, the campaign ran in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, provinces chosen because they are the regions most affected by the regulations, an Alberta spokesperson explained earlier.

A woman’s voice in one radio ad warned that Ottawa’s proposed regulations will make electricity undependable and “the things you rely on won’t work when needed,” including hot water, computers, washers and dryers, televisions, lights, heat and mobile phones. 

32 Atlantic seats

Asked about her response to Nova Scotians who question why the Alberta government deems it their responsibility to educate people in this province, Smith said it is because there are 32 seats at the federal level in Atlantic Canada.

“Many of those seats are held by Liberals and we want to make sure that we’re letting the Liberal caucus know they are creating great harm to Alberta and we also know that both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have a similarly difficult time in reaching those 2035 targets so we wanted to see if we could get some allies in being able to demonstrate that we need to take a more reasonable approach,” said Smith, leader of the United Conservative Party in Alberta.

The Alberta premier also wanted to allay concerns about what a potential pullout from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) by her province could mean to the rest of the country.

“I let the other premiers know that this has been a conversation in our province for probably close to 25 years,” Smith said.

Smith referenced the January 2001 Firewall letter penned by six Alberta politicians, political scientists and others that set out an Alberta agenda against unwelcome intrusions from Ottawa.

The letter talked about ways that Alberta “could assert its provincial rights more like Quebec,” Smith said.

CPP consultation

“It talked about having a provincial pension plan, collecting our own taxes, having our own police force, having our own immigration system.”

Discussions about leaving the Canada Pension Plan “is just the natural conclusion to ask our people if that is the direction they want to go in after talking about it for 25 years,” she said.

“My predecessor had started the process by doing a consultation, people in Alberta asked to do a report and if there was enough interest in moving to a referendum of the people so we released the report and we’re just in the process of consulting right now,” Smith said.

The premier said “we are certainly not going to do anything that threatens the viability of the Canada Pension Plan.”

Smith said if it is the case that the amount of asset transfer that Alberta believes it is entitled to gets transferred over to a Alberta plan, “it would simply return the plan to the same kind of asset-to-liability ratio that it had in 2013, so it wouldn’t undermine its viability, but as a small province, people need to know how much we are subsidizing the program.”

Smith said a smaller province normally should expect that being part of a larger plan would bring that province some benefit.

“For Alberta, it’s actually costing our ratepayers an extra $1,425 a year and our businesses an extra $1,425 a year and that’s the consideration we’ve put to our populace to see if they want to move forward with a referendum and we’re still consulting on that.”