EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith claims that recently announced projects in Alberta demonstrate a drastic shift in national attitudes towards oil and gas investments, as she continues to try to show Albertans that Alberta can work within Canada. After three multi-billion-dollar investments announced in July, beginning with a West Coast pipeline proposal submission to the federal major projects office on July 3, Smith believes the results of her efforts are beginning to show."Not only the announcement of that pipeline, announcing a partnership with Ontario to pursue the Eastern pipeline, as well as the pipeline that's going to take natural gas to Sturgeon County for the Meta project," said Smith during a K-Days breakfast, in response to a Western Standard question on Thursday. "I think that those things in combination have demonstrated that the environment that we're now in for investing in traditional oil and gas is 180 degrees different than it was 18 months ago." .Facing an Alberta independence movement that exploded after another federal election left Albertans feeling disregarded, Smith spent over a year working with Carney to undo what she calls "nine bad laws" handcuffing Alberta's economy. "That's what we were trying to show: is that we knew that the federal government had to meet us partway in undoing some of those bad laws, and I think the fact that we're seeing those kinds of announcements demonstrates that it is a genuine departure from the bad laws that they passed," Smith said. Smith's efforts received public support on Thursday after an Angus Reid Institute poll revealed 61% national support, among respondents, for the proposed West Coast pipeline, including 62% in B.C., where Premier David Eby has vehemently opposed discussions of the pipeline. .Her fight for Alberta to remain in Canada also appears to have significant support in Alberta. According to the most recent polling published by Leger and Ipsos in June, independence is at 21% and 18%, respectively, among respondents. However, with roughly three months left before Alberta's referendum on whether Albertans want the UCP to begin the path towards holding a binding independence referendum, Smith sees the hurdles ahead. "We'll know more about the pipeline October 1st, which is when we expect to get the interim approval, and then September of 2027 is when we get final approval and are able to build," Smith said. "So I think that we'll. We still have a few more months to go through that process, but I think I'm getting more encouraged every day."
