Taking stock of 2025: Premier Danielle Smith looks back on the year that was

CTV News Calgary senior anchor Tara Nelson sat down with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to chat about some of the bigger and more controversial moments for her government this past year.

The below answers have been edited only for style and clarity.

On the memorandum of understanding (MOU) being a big win and making a bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast happen…

I would say the biggest win was we got rid of the emissions cap, and the biggest win was we got rid of the clean electricity regs. That’s what people are going to see an immediate impact on.

Capital Power has already said they’re going to usher in a new era of investing in gas-fired and electricity, which will then help to build out our AI data centres.

We already have a number of pipeline proponents—Enbridge, the Trans Mountain pipeline, South Bow—talking about doing open seasons to expand their pipeline capacity and, yes, also having the bitumen pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast coupled with the Pathways project for decarbonization.

That’ll take a little bit longer, and we have indicated by July of next year we hope to have that submitted to the Major Projects Office, and we hope to be able to see an approval within the time frame they talked about—being two years.

On whether more meaningful consultation with the B.C. premier or with Coastal First Nations should’ve happened…

Let’s remember, Coastal First Nations is a lobby group—they don’t actually have any representation of the decision-makers on councils. We’re talking with First Nations councils and beginning engagement.

You have to announce your intention to do a project, and then engagement begins, and then a formal consultation, which we know we have an obligation to do.

I would say there’s still lots of runway and lots of time to do that. My minister of Indigenous relations has been to B.C. several times, (and) I’ll begin trilateral discussions with David Eby and Mark Carney in the new year.

There are many things the premier and I have to work on together. It’s not just a new road for a bitumen pipeline—it’s also expanding LNG, it’s expanding ammonia to the Prince Rupert port, it’s support for the transmission lines and increased power production, which will help him in his golden triangle that he wants to do six mining operations, the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

All of those conversations were indicated in the MOU and will begin in earnest in the new year.

On the appetite for separatism within the UCP party, or whether it now is a separatist party…

I would say most of our members likely support what I do, which is a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada. But let’s be frank—the separatist sentiment probably rose as high as 37 per cent after the election because of the frustration Albertans have with how they’ve been treated for the past 10 years.

I think it’s my job to demonstrate Canada can work again, but there’s some proving that needs to be done by Canada, and that’s why I’ll be asking for the prime minister to live up to his commitments, and I intend to live up to our commitments, and slowly but surely, I think, as the MOU gets implemented (and) as projects get announced, we’ll build confidence again.

On whether she can keep the party united…

It all very much depends on the Liberal Party and Mark Carney. I think we’ve started in a good way. I think he’s demonstrated far more interest in accommodating the serious concerns Albertans have than his predecessor, but it’s going to be action, not talk. I think we’ve heard a lot of talk for a lot of years.

We’ve had a lot of damage done to our economy in the last 10 years, and we have some work to do, but I’m prepared to do that work.

On whether she signed the Forever Canada petition…

No. I didn’t want to vote.

Remember, when you put a question like that to the people, they can always say no, and there are serious consequences to no. I think that, perhaps, the Forever Canada people, in their earnestness, didn’t realize what they were doing. … Now we’re in a bit of a bind, because I think finally the proponents have realized if it goes to a referendum, the no side could win, which is why they’ve now told us they don’t want it to go to a vote.

We’re going to put that to a committee, and we’re going to figure out what to do with it. I’m hopeful over the coming months and weeks, once again, we’ll be able to prove out the changes we’re making at the federal level.

On changes to the law so the separatists can have a petition of their own and whether she made it easy for them...

I think the Forever Canada group made it easy for the separatists, and I think if the separatists do want to get their own petition and demonstrate there’s support, they should do the work themselves.

That’s one part of it. The other part is the citizen-initiated referenda are meant to be permissive—they’re not meant to have gatekeepers.

It’s the job of government when the will of the people is expressed through a referendum and it’s passed … to make sure it’s implemented in a constitutional way. What we were unhappy with was seeing there were barriers being put up to citizens being able to express that, and so now those barriers are removed, and I guess we’ll see whether they’re able to get the same number of signatures.

On whether we could see questions for both sides put to a referendum…

Potentially.

On the numerous citizen-led petitions calling for recalls of MLAs...

I think it’s unfortunate because I believe it’s an abuse of process.

I stand by every one of our MLAs—I think they’re doing incredible work, (and) I think we’ve got the support of the majority of Albertans on the agenda we were elected to do, and I think the time to fight out these kinds of policy differences is during a general election, which is scheduled for October 2027.

On the notwithstanding clause being used four times this fall, and reconciling its use with her describing herself as a libertarian…

I guess the common denominator is we’ll do whatever it takes to protect kids. When kids are facing gender confusion, they deserve to have time to figure out what their pathway is going to be and make their own choices.

And if they’re going to make medical decisions regarding their body that might affect their fertility, they can only do that when they’re of age to do so.

We put lots of limitations on the choices of kids. We don’t let them drink or smoke or do drugs or sign contracts or drive, and so it’s very reasonable that if somebody is going to make a decision that ends their fertility, that they’re old enough to understand what that means, and so that’s why we said 15 years of age and younger is too young.

On critics calling the notwithstanding clause an anti-democracy sledgehammer...

It’s the opposite of that. Democracy is decisions being made by elected representatives, and we have the ability and a system of parliamentary supremacy where we can pass a law, revise a law (or) repeal a law.

We have a difference of opinion with the court on these pretty foundational issues.

On health-care system changes toward a public-private model and what that means for those who can’t afford to pay…

What we have found is the more money we give to the traditional public hospital system, it’s not resulting in improved performance. We gave $3.5 billion more to AHS, and we’re doing the same number of surgeries today, finally, that we were pre-COVID. Meanwhile, when we started paying charter surgical facilities based on the number of surgeries they did, it’s gone up 50 per cent.

So, we’re moving to an activity-based funding model where we pay the facilities for the surgeries they perform, and we hope that is one way we can increase the surgeries. We’re also paying for an additional 50,000 over the next three years to clear that backlog. … Dual practice should be seen in that light—we’re doing all of this investment in the public health system, but then we’re also creating another avenue.

On what should Albertans expect going into 2026 regarding the price of oil…

I have told Albertans very frankly we need $74 oil to balance our budget.

Albertans consistently want to have a low-tax environment, and we’ve delivered on that, but what that means is when oil prices are off by $10 or $15 or $20, it blows a big hole in our budget. That’s why we’re being very frank about the deficits we’re likely going to run next year.

We hope we can find a pathway to balance, but that’s also the reason why we have to have more pipelines built. If we had built all three of the major pipelines that were set to go—Northern Gateway, Keystone XL, Energy East—we would be having 2.5 million more barrels of pipeline capacity and production than we do right now, which would be generating $50 billion a year.

We’re hoping to see some new additional production within the next couple of years, but as long as the prices stay low, it is going to be a lot of additional pressure on our budget, for sure.