The fourth Alberta Next town hall was held in Fort McMurray on Tuesday night, with Premier Danielle Smith and a large panel of speakers including MLAs, business and indigenous leaders, academics, and health professionals discussing how Ottawa’s policies were threatening Alberta’s prosperity.As in previous iterations of the panel, six topics were discussed: equalization payments, an Alberta Pension Plan (APP), a provincial police force, constitutional changes to better protect provincial rights, immigration, and provincial tax collection.Smith opened up the evening by praising the host location’s central role in Canada’s economy.“Saying Fort McMurray and the surrounding area has an outsized impact on our economy would be an understatement,” Smith said.“A huge percentage of Canada's total exports are produced right here. Fort McMurray and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo have an immense impact, not just on Alberta's fortunes, but on Canada's too.”The premier warned that federal policies — from Bill C-69, to the tanker ban, and the federal emissions cap — have driven away “more than half a trillion dollars in global investment capital” over the past decade, costing the province hundreds of thousands of jobs.“If Canada is to be a strong and unified country, it must include a strong and sovereign Alberta, able to pursue our own potential, without being held back by our own country and our own federal government,” she said.Unlike some previous town halls, this edition was a mostly civil affair, with some of the only heated exchanges of the evening coming in the APP portion of the night and later discussions revolving around education..Cost of living, immigration spark criticism at latest Alberta Next town hall in Edmonton.Several attendees challenged Smith on why the government continues to promote the idea of the APP when surveys — such as a 2023 poll showing that 63% of Albertans opposed leaving the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) — suggest otherwise.One Fort McMurray native who said she had parents who are retirement age asked the panel: “How will you ensure that Ottawa is going to give up this $140 billion of the CPP for Alberta to start its own pension plan?”Smith maintained that the constitution gives provinces the right to have pension plans.“In the 1960s, Alberta joined the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), while Quebec chose to establish its own independent pension fund,” she said.She went on to highlight the imbalance in the current Canadian financial system, insisting Alberta is entitled to the $140 billion figure if it withdrew from the CPP.“Each year, Alberta contributes $9 billion in CPP premiums but receives only $6 billion in benefits for our seniors,” she said.“This $3 billion annual surplus, compounding over time, is controlled by Ottawa without Alberta’s input on investment decisions.”Another questioner asked why Albertans should trust the government to manage their savings better than the CPP.Smith stated that reforms at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), including moving away from diversity, equity, and inclusion and “ideology-driven” investing, prove her government can handle the responsibility..Alberta Next panel’s tax collection plan: Here's what you need to know.Andrew Judson, a panelist and senior advisor at Fort Capital, reiterated that the math supports the viability of a provincial plan.“An Alberta pension would be viable, sustainable, and successful," he said."Contributions would fall and benefits would rise.“Alberta, the energy industry, and specifically the oil sands, have already bailed [the CPP] out once, so I want to just convey to people the confidence that this is something that we’re entirely capable of managing successfully.”Immigration was another hot topic during the evening.Smith argued that Alberta should control its intake the way Quebec does, saying the federal government’s recent increase in new migrants is straining both the housing market and other public services.“Between 2009 and 2019, Canada welcomed about 0.6% of the population as newcomers, which worked out to about 275,000 a year,” Smith said.“Last year, it was 1.8 million. We think our economy can handle about 50,000 newcomers a year,” she said, with a majority selected as economic migrants.The conversation then switched to the topic of education when a local teacher named Sarah raised concerns about the province’s handling of education and new restrictions regarding reading materials in the classroom.“I'll be teaching without books for the first time in over 20 years, due to UCP’s censorship. Our school library is now closed until further notice,” she said.“We’re forced to out children. This is not my job. Many of us have been teaching in classrooms where temperatures climb to above 30 degrees on hot days, and our schools are no longer safe as a result of chronic underfunding by the UCP.“How can we trust your policing goals, pension plans and protection of our most vulnerable, our children?”Smith countered by defending her government’s recent stance on reading materials, saying she wouldn’t be able to show some of the graphic materials that are being removed from schools to the adult audience that was present.“I wouldn't be able to hold up an image without a warning because it would include a graphic image, including detailed sex acts, because it would offend our audience,” she stated.“And if our audience would be offended by that, a seven-year-old shouldn't be watching that.”.WATCH: Alberta Next panel floats working with provinces to amend Constitution .Later on in the evening, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schultz gave an impassioned defence of Alberta’s energy sector during a discussion on the topic, criticizing Ottawa’s environmental agenda.“I wish I wasn't fighting with the federal government, but it really is about defending Alberta against nonsensical and radical environmental policies that are not anywhere based in reality, starting with the clean electricity regulations,” the minister said, stating these policies are costing taxpayers billions of dollars.She questioned how Prime Minister Mark Carney could currently be in European countries such as Germany and Poland and expect foreign investment in Canadian oil and gas when Bill C-69 hampers domestic industry and scares off potential investors.“Even with all of the uncertainty south of the border, investors are putting their money in America, and not in Canada, because of this federal government policy. This impacts this community directly,” she said, referencing the Fort McMurray audience.“$282 billion in lost GDP. [That] doesn't mean a lot to an everyday family, but a number that does mean a lot to a regular, everyday family is 90,000 jobs lost in Alberta.”Premier Smith closed out the evening, stressing that while it won’t be possible to achieve everything that everyone in the room and the province at large want, having more control over Alberta’s collective destiny is a start.“We have to decide, do we have the money? Do we have the population that makes it make sense for us to take on more of the same kind of powers that other big provinces have?“Maybe we couldn’t have when we only had a million people, but maybe we can do it today.”
