EDMONTON — Prominent Alberta independence advocate Keith Wilson claims that despite recent economic investments and job growth, Alberta's full economic potential will not be achieved within Canada. “Imagine Alberta's potential with Ottawa out of our way," said Wilson in a video released on Thursday. "Look at what we're achieving with Ottawa still holding us back." On July 8, Premier Danielle Smith announced a $13 billion investment by Meta Platforms to build an AI data centre in Sturgeon County, which will be powered by a $4.6 billion natural gas pipeline that was announced on July 2. "They had choices; they picked Alberta," Wilson said. "We've just seen a study come out that points to 80% of the jobs that have been created in Canada have been created in Alberta, and all of this is happening while Ottawa's holding us back." .Nationalists, among other grievances, often express frustration with Canada's government for handcuffing and even destroying Alberta's economy. Premier Danielle Smith's fight to keep Alberta in Canada has focused on proving to Albertans that Alberta can work within a united Canada. A pair of pipeline announcements during Stampede season helped emphasize her argument, as the UCP submitted their proposal for a West Coast pipeline with partial private funding on July 2, and joined Ontario Premier Doug Ford in his quest to get a pipeline from Alberta to Ontario on July 6. "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," said Smith on Thursday."And 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." .Wilson says the announcements are not wins for Alberta, though. "Remember in the day when it was a simple process of an oil company saw an ability to build a pipeline to take oil that was being produced and supply it to a market, the oil company would pay for the pipeline," Wilson said. "When the TMX from Edmonton to Vancouver was originally proposed, it was going to cost $5 billion. It cost much more than that when the government had to step in and take it over because the company tapped out because of the ridiculous anti-development laws, net-zero policies of the Trudeau Liberals and now the Carney Liberals." According to a report released by the Fraser Institute on June 25, the federal carbon tax, though less than the original pricing under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, still puts Alberta at a competitive disadvantage. .On Monday, the Alberta and federal governments, along with a group of oil industry companies, announced an agreement for the Pathways carbon capture and storage project, which was a requirment for the proposed West Coast pipeline's approval. "The Pathways project could cost as high as $25 billion, and we just found out this week, through the agreement that was announced, that most of that is going to come from taxpayers, not the oil industry," Wilson said."It makes no sense at any level. As the oil industry executives have said, there's no customer in the world that's asking for decarbonized oil or willing to pay a premium for net-zero, so that means that's a burden for us, our children, and our grandchildren."For some, Meta's $13 billion investment and a somewhat softened federal position on Alberta's economy may look like wins for the "united Canada" team, but Wilson says the opposite. "So these recent announcements, in my view, are not taking the wind out of the sails," Wilson said. "They're providing evidence as to why Alberta needs to redefine its relationship with Canada, why Albertans need to vote for option two in October."
