Alberta Premier Danielle Smith isn't backing away from potential legal action against the Trudeau Liberals despite news Ottawa will extend its net-zero electricity grid target from 2035 to 2050.
Alberta is engaged in a bitter battle over Ottawa's so-called Clean Electricity Regulations that are described as unrealistic for the province given its abundance of natural gas, climate, and lack of hydroelectricity potential.
Smith's critics say Alberta should include much more wind and solar in its electricity grid. Others say that plan would lead to a dramatic increase in power bills — and be extremely difficult to achieve without massive infrastructure changes.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has revealed the cost for Canada to meet climate change targets is $690 billion. Meanwhile, analysts say meeting the 2050 power grid target would still be daunting and expensive.
Smith went on the offensive at a press conference on Thursday regarding Ottawa's overstep into Alberta's jurisdiction.
"If I passed policy in areas of federal jurisdiction, let's say (hypothetically) I'm going to start my own currency in Alberta in 2035, and they came back and said 'You can't do it, that's Section 91 of the constitution, that's federal jurisdiction.' And then my response was, okay, well, don't worry, I'll do it in 2050 then. You don't solve the foundational problem," said Smith, adding Ottawa has no right to dictate power grid changes.
Smith is glad Ottawa seems to be backing away from heavy-handed punitive action. She said Guilbeault has finally admitted to what Alberta has been arguing — that some of the things tabled by Ottawa are too stringent, and from a technical point of view, would be difficult to achieve without a huge financial burden on taxpayers.
"So, I guess the question is really for Steven Guilbeault — Why, knowing that, has he drawn us through a year long dispute, publicly in the media, in the courts, and through an advertising campaign when he knows full well that what he was proposing was unachievable and costly? And we're not done yet, because we've got two other idiotic policies that we're fighting, the proposed emissions cap and net-zero cars by 2026."
"I think he full well understands the implications of what he's doing. I think he's doing it put a chill on investment, and that's why we continue to fight. They've got to just back off of that provincial jurisdiction."