CALGARY — Premier Danielle Smith has said years of Ottawa's energy, immigration and firearms policies helped to fuel the rise of the Alberta independence movement — but added her new energy deal with Ottawa is a step in the right direction.Speaking in Calgary on Friday following the signing of a new, major energy agreement with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Smith argued frustration in Alberta had been driven by a broader sense that Ottawa had been systematically closing off the province's economic future in recent years.."It's vitally important that this deal was signed, because I think there's a number of decisions the federal government [previously] made that ended up eroding confidence," Smith told the Western Standard."It wasn't just about getting a pipeline built. It was that [Ottawa] took away [the chance] of us ever getting another pipeline to be built ever again."She noted that while Alberta still has access to the Trans Mountain pipeline and natural gas projects on the West Coast, many Albertans had become convinced Ottawa intended to force a long-term decline in oil production."[We were] essentially staring into a future where not only would we never be able to build another pipeline, but we'd have to start shutting in our existing production," she said.She then referenced consultant projections that could have resulted in Alberta reducing oil production by as much as two million barrels per day by 2035, adding it would have had a massive "impact" on the province, arguing the concerns over the economic consequences of those policies — including impacts on provincial finances, taxation, and public services — significantly contributed to western alienation..UPDATED: Smith, Carney announce new West Coast pipeline plan, industrial carbon tax deal.The premier also linked growing independence sentiment to federal immigration policies under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but said she was encouraged by the changes being made under the Carney government.She then added the federal gun grab program, which is set to have its mandatory surrender/deactivation amnesty end on October 30, 2026, also fuelled a great deal of anger against the federal government."A lot of the separatist movement is being fuelled by those who are law-abiding gun owners, who are going to be made criminals by the existing federal firearms bans on guns that come into effect in October," she stated, but added she hoped Friday's energy agreement with Ottawa could help reduce the frustration among Albertans going forward despite acknowledging several concerns still remain unresolved."I think that this will help a lot towards a group of folks who were disaffected because of economic issues," she said."I think some of the changes on immigration, that we're going to be proposing in the fall, will also help address some of the concerns, but I still think there's some other outstanding issues, and in particular, the gun issue, I think, is a big one."
