CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has announced that she is preparing to use her province’s Sovereignty Act to fight Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s forthcoming Clean Electricity Regulations.
On September 28, Smith told reporters that she is in the process of drafting a motion to use the Sovereignty Act to combat the Trudeau government pushing a carbon net-zero electricity grid by 2030 despite the detrimental effect experts warn it would have on the province.
“We’re preparing a Sovereignty Act motion, and I’m hoping we don’t have to use it,” Smith reiterated on Thursday.
It’s time for Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau to really listen to what Canadians are saying…
Paying 4x the price for electricity or suffering blackouts in the middle of the winter is NOT an option for our families and businesses.
You can take action right now!
Head to… pic.twitter.com/u9JFlwpBNR— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) September 28, 2023
“We are going to defend our constitutional jurisdiction to make sure that we develop our oil and gas industry at our own pace,” she added.
Passed in December 2022, the Sovereignty Act gives Alberta a framework in which it can enforce its jurisdiction in areas such as natural resources or private property against the federal government. The act is used to “address federal legislation and policies that are unconstitutional, violate Albertans’ charter rights or that affect or interfere with our provincial constitutional rights.”
Smith did say that she hopes Alberta can come to an agreement with the Trudeau government over the electricity regulations, but she remains willing to use the Sovereignty Act if necessary.
“Hopefully, no one ever has to see [the motion]. Hopefully … we’re able to come to a peaceful resolution with our federal counterparts,” said Smith.
Smith’s warning comes as the Trudeau government continues to push a variety of “clean energy” regulations on provinces, despite experts warning it will make paying bills even more difficult for many Canadians.
Smith has repeatedly vowed her province will not comply with nor enact the Clean Electricity Regulations, promising to disobey any such rules should they come into force.
“If they become the law of the land, they would crush Albertans’ finances, and they would also cause dramatic increases in electricity bills for families and businesses across Canada,” Smith said.
“So let me be clear, any plan that makes electricity more expensive and less reliable is a bad plan and the Clean Electricity Regulations are an exceptionally bad, poorly thought out and illogical plan,” she added.
The draft version of the federal government’s Clean Electricity Regulations states that there will be billions of higher costs associated with so-called “green” power transition, especially in the resource-rich provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, which use natural gas and coal to fuel power plants.
This May, Canada’s Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault declared that violating environmental regulations banning the use of coal and gas-fired power after 2035 may even result in criminal sanctions, a statement which only increased the tension between the federal government and the provinces opposed to the proposed policies.
The Trudeau government also recently threatened to withhold billions of taxpayer money to provinces that will continue to use resources such as natural gas, oil and coal to generate electricity beyond 2035.
In addition to Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has likewise promised to fight back against Trudeau’s new regulations, saying recently that “Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional.”
“They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” he charged.
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil-fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
While Trudeau’s plan has been pushed under the guise of “sustainability,” his intention to decrease nitrous oxide emissions by limiting the use of fertilizer has been criticized by farmers. They say this will reduce profits and could even lead to food shortages.