EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith told American and Canadian public and private leaders that Alberta’s referendum will provide concerned investors with the certainty they require, amid prevailing independence sentiment in Alberta ahead of the October vote. "I mean, the only thing that we can do is make the case, allow people to have the debate, and then on October 19th, see what the outcome is," said Smith to a crowd of private and public sector leaders gathered at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region summit in Edmonton on Monday. "I think that people in Alberta respect democracy, respect the process, and it'll be my job after that for the losing side to understand that they've been heard and to also try to heal that divide." Smith gave the answer in response to a question about what can be done to help investors concerned about the independence movement hanging over Alberta. "I think we'll see that on October 19th," Smith said. .The Premier said Albertans are voting on independence in October because 400,000 people signed a petition calling for a vote to remain in Canada, and 300,000 signed a petition calling for a vote to leave. "You can't have 25% of your voting public say we want to have this debate and ignore that when you've got a legislative framework for it," Smith said. "So that's the reason why we're having it."Smith claims ignoring Alberta's "legitimate grievances" will not make the independence movement disappear.She told the audience of leaders from Western Canada and the Northwestern U.S. that the frustration exists because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government tried to shut down Alberta's oil industry because they believed the world could run on solar, wind, and batteries. "We've got people who've lost jobs, lost businesses," Smith said. "When you lose your career, sometimes that causes family breakdown. When you lose your career, sometimes that causes family breakdown. It's caused real hardship over the last 10 years of not being able to grow." "And so, when you have that, when you have a federal government suppressing your ability as a province to develop your resources and maintain your economy, it is going to develop a backlash." .The tide has changed under Prime Minister Mark Carney, according to Smith, through a "pragmatic" approach to balance climate concerns with the need to unshackle Alberta's economy. There were a number of Alberta economic announcements in July, including the submission of a proposed pipeline to the B.C. coast, a $13 billion Meta Platforms AI data centre and a $4.6 billion Pembina natural gas pipeline to power it. Smith claims every jurisdiction in North America could benefit from a pragmatic approach to balancing environmental and business concerns, particularly when it comes to resources and AI data centres. "If we genuinely care about the prosperity of our people and affordable energy and being able to win that AI innovation, we have to be pragmatic about it," Smith said earlier in her fireside. "We have to acknowledge the technologies and the costs associated with them, how quickly we can get to market with them, and we have to stop sabotaging our own success.".But at the moment, she is focused on ensuring that the October referendum results in Alberta remaining in Canada. “The way I kind of describe it is, there's a certain segment of our Alberta population that want to file the divorce papers, and I want to go into couples counselling,” Smith said. “So we're in that couples counselling mode right now, and I'm confident it'll work out as long as we can work through the issues one by one.”
