Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is once again asserting Alberta sovereignty amid an escalating Canada/US trade war, growing separatist sentiment, and a floundering national economy.
Smith says her government is moving to strengthen the province’s constitutional authority with new legislation that ensures Ottawa cannot impose international agreements without Alberta’s consent.
“The Constitution is clear — provinces have authority over matters within their jurisdiction, and that authority cannot be signed away by Ottawa,” Smith said while introducing Bill 1, the International Agreements Act.
She said previous legislation protected provincial powers related to trade and investment, but the new act “strengthened that protection to cover all areas of provincial jurisdiction.”
“Ottawa can sign international agreements with other countries, that’s their right,” Smith said. “But this legislation makes it clear that those agreements will only become enforceable in Alberta if implemented under provincial legislation.”
Calling the measure neither new nor radical, Smith noted that “Quebec has had a similar framework requiring provincial consent” and said Alberta is following that model.
“I’ve met with Prime Minister Mark Carney several times,” she added. “I’ve told him the same thing every time — that Confederation works best when Ottawa respects the Constitution and provincial authority.”
Smith said Alberta’s economy has “suffered tremendous damage” from past federal overreach and vowed: “We’ll protect our people, our industries, and make sure that decisions that affect Albertans are made by Albertans.”