Separatists and federalists are working to convince Albertans to vote their way in October, but could separating trigger significant economic consequences? Lawyer and independence advocate Keith Wilson joins Alberta Primetime’s Michael Higgins to discuss his perspective. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Michael Higgins: We spoke with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and they’re deeply concerned by the prospect of separation, notably that the referendum will trigger significant and lasting economic consequences. How do you respond to that perspective? Keith Wilson: I recognize that she’s advocating a political position and she’s wrong to suggest that when you look at the situation that we’re in, in Alberta and in Canada, that a move towards independence and having decisions and laws and policies passed in Alberta instead of Ottawa will scare business away. The evidence of that is pretty clear. If you look at the report from the Royal Bank of Canada that was released less than a month ago, it found that over a trillion dollars in investment has left Canada, most of that being investment that would have occurred in Alberta. Because of the uncertainty that’s been created by the laws in Ottawa, there’s no prospect for us to change those laws. These are laws that are anti-development, they increase the cost of business, they create so much uncertainty that the corporations and companies decide to invest elsewhere, including the United States and around the world, but not here. The fact of the matter is, there’s a legal pathway to independence where the decision making and law making would shift from Ottawa to Alberta and we can create an environment of certainty. I think the greater challenge we’ll have is the amount of investment that we’ll want to flow here because we have the third largest reserve of oil in the world, we have a young entrepreneurial hardworking workforce, and we have a diversified economy. MH: You’re a King’s Counsel lawyer, we’ve spoken with you before on property rights cases, among others. Why do you personally believe Alberta would be better off as an independent country? KW: Because I’m also a dad, I’m an Albertan, a family person, and a member of my community. When I look at the direction, unfortunately, that Canada is on and how dramatically Canada has changed under the governments in Ottawa over the last 11 years, I’m very concerned about the future for my children. With the cost of living, the future for grandchildren, the increasingly restrictive laws from Ottawa, their shift to authoritarian type tendencies with censorship and other laws, it’s absolutely clear to me when I look at the wealth and the wealth of resources and entrepreneurial spirit and hardworking Albertans, that my kids will have a far better future in an independent Alberta. Then I put my lawyer’s cap on and Canada is a unique country. There’s no other developed country that has a constitutional pathway for a province or a state to legally leave and we do in Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada said if a clear majority of Albertans vote on a clear question, then we have the right to negotiate a new relationship with Canada. We’ll still be neighbours to Canada, but we’ll be able to govern ourselves and determine our relationship with the rest of Canada instead of having it imposed upon us. MH: What do you bring to the table with the Alberta Transition Council? KW: Anybody who’s thinking about independence and what they should vote for in the upcoming referendum in October, should we stay or should the Alberta government formally commence a vote, has many questions that are currently unanswered. How are we going to provide continuity of border services at the airport and at the borders? What is monetary policy going to be? How are we going to transition the pensions from the Canada Pension Plan to Alberta? How are we going to maintain aviation services? I’ve brought together a group of experts in all of those fields: telecommunications, military, international trade, monetary policy, and we’re currently working on a white paper that we’ll be releasing later in July that will detail how the transition can occur. We’re not advocating for it or against it, just saying if Albertans vote for independence, what does the transition look like? How do we ensure continuity of service? How do we ensure investor confidence? How do we smoothly transition from Alberta being a province, a colony controlled by Ottawa, to an independent country with Canada as our neighbours instead of our controllers? MH: Pent-up anger and frustration have fuelled momentum for separation, which the Smith government has acknowledged by triggering this separation referendum question. On the other side of the coin, there are Albertans who are angry, even fearful of the province being thrust into this situation. How do you address that perspective? KW: I’m very sympathetic to it, but what I would encourage those people to do is to have an honest, open-eyed assessment of the trajectory of Canada. We have record debt. The Trudeau and Carney Liberals have accumulated more government debt, that’s the taxpayers credit card they’re racking up, than all of the previous governments combined. The debt servicing alone is projected to hit $80 billion. We have inflation, we have the lowest growth rate in the G20 countries. Canada is in bad shape and we’re seeing an affordability crisis. My kids’ friends aren’t able to buy homes in their late 20s and early 30s. Kids aren’t having children because of the cost of living. When the cost of living goes up and when inflation goes up because of government policy, we work as hard as we did tomorrow as we did yesterday but our money is worth less. I think people should really look at the authoritarian tendencies that we’re seeing from some of the laws in Ottawa. What scares me more is Alberta staying in Canada and watching this continual degradation of what Canada once was and the affordability crisis. There’s no sign that the Carney Liberals are going to change course. Alberta is incredibly blessed with resources, we have more than what it needs to be a country. Forty-one countries have come into existence since 1990. New countries and creation of new countries is a relatively normal thing on the planet Earth. We have a legal pathway, we have the skills, we have the infrastructure, and I think Albertans can do this. When people look at it, I’m hopeful they’ll realize the right choice for their children and their grandchildren is to support independence.
