Danielle Smith meets with PM Mark Carney, calls B.C. premier ‘un-Canadian’

A fight is brewing between two premiers over Alberta's push for a new oil pipeline. Rachel Aiello reports.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to reaching an agreement regarding Alberta’s pitch for a proposed bitumen pipeline to the West Coast by next month, according to Premier Danielle Smith.

Smith, speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday, said she remains hopeful “to have some kind of agreement” by the Grey Cup, which is being held Nov. 16.

The premier said by that date she’s looking for Carney to give “a clear indication” on a pipeline and an energy sector effort to reach carbon neutrality, as well as his plans to address policies that in her view have been “creating an investment climate that is hostile to private investment.”

Carney met with Smith in Ottawa on Monday afternoon, before he departed for Washington, D.C. In his brief remarks during a photo-op at the start of their meeting, the prime minister indicated the pair had “a lot to discuss” including about making Canada an energy superpower. He also indicated, without naming any, that there were a “huge range of exciting opportunities there.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not issue a statement following their sit-down, but Smith posted on “X” that in the meeting, Carney “reiterated to me “his commitment to reach an agreement.”

“The message I’ve had to the prime minister is that it’s the oilsands companies who need to have confidence that they’re going to be allowed to expand production in order to be able to fill the pipeline,” Smith said Tuesday.

“And at the moment, because of the laws that are in place, they don’t have that confidence. So that’s why we have to deal with these things as a package.”

Smith was asked whether she got a sense that Carney would be willing to repeal the environmental laws and policies she’s pushing to scrap – including a ban on oil tankers off the coast of B.C., and a cap on emissions from oil and gas production. She responded that they’re “talking about that.”

“I think he understands that there needs to be a repeal or substantial revision. And let’s be frank, I mean, he did repeal the retail carbon tax… also delayed the implementation of the net-zero cars when he realized it was impossible to implement it,” she said.

“So I think he’s demonstrated that if something isn’t working, that he’s prepared to repeal or modify. And so, I don’t want to get ahead of our potential agreement, but do know that that is factoring into the discussions that we hope to have an answer for by Grey Cup.”

CTV News has asked Carney’s office to respond to the premier’s comments.

Smith is spending a few days in Eastern Canada to build relationships and push partnerships with companies looking to build major projects. In addition to meeting with Carney on Monday, the premier met with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his caucus.

Smith has repeatedly said this pipeline is a litmus test for whether Canada works as a country.

In an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, Smith also said many Albertans believe Canada is broken.

“I suppose I could just go down to the United States and start working with American counterparts to see if we can build more pipelines,” she told Kapelos, adding however that she believes it would be a “failure” to become even more reliant on the U.S. amid a historic over-reliance on that country.

“But I believed the premiers and I believed the prime minister when they said they wanted us to work like a country, that they wanted us to open new markets, and that’s what I’m doing,” she also said.

Smith calls Premier Eby ‘un-Canadian’

In the press conference, Smith also shot back at B.C. Premier David Eby for calling her latest pitch to help fund a pipeline to British Columbia’s northwest coast a “fictional” proposal in a social media video posted Monday.

“I think premier Eby’s comments are un-Canadian and they’re unconstitutional,” Smith said.

She went on to state that the reason the federal government has control in this area, is “so that a parochial premier isn’t able to block nation-building projects.”

The neighbouring premiers have been locked in a war of words since last week, when Smith declared her plans to file a pitch with Carney’s new Major Projects Office to have Alberta act as the proponent of the new pipeline, and Eby stated his clear opposition to such plans, calling it “not a real project.”

Eby has taken the position that the proposal makes “no financial or economic sense,” while Smith has suggested the push to have an oil pipeline to the West Coast built is a test of Canadian unity as “every other province has been components of very big projects.”

CTV News has asked Eby’s office for comment on Smith’s latest remarks.

Speaking to reporters in Victoria on Tuesday, Eby said Smith’s pipeline proposal puts “goodwill at risk” and threatens B.C. projects.

“It’s not the Danielle Smith show, it’s the Canadian team,” he said. “And we all deserve the same opportunity for the same federal funding for our projects as she does for her. That’s not un-Canadian, that is fair.”

‘Pipelines should be built by the private sector’

Smith – who has committed $14 million in taxpayer dollars towards her new pipeline pitch but has stopped short of saying the maximum she spend – said Tuesday that she doesn’t think projects can be a success if taxpayer dollars have to be spent to build them.

“Pipelines should be built by the private sector. If we’re going through this exercise, we’re doing it so that we can restore investor confidence again,” Smith said, in the context of a question about whether she would support taxpayer dollars going into the construction of a Keystone expansion.

“I don’t think that there’s a shortage of private sector dollars. As long as you’ve got a regulatory environment that’s going to support that investment, and that’s what we’re working towards.”

Smith also said that even if Keystone was revived and developed – something U.S. President Donald Trump strongly supports – she’d still want more pipelines built.

“We are taking a view of all of the above,” Smith said. “We think that there’s opportunity to go south, there’s opportunity to go west, there’s opportunity to go east, potentially to Churchill,” the premier said.

“So those are the things that we’re looking at, but we just need a commitment on the part of Canada that they’re going to partner with us on getting our products to market.”