Danielle Smith says caucus members can sign any petition they want to, including on separation

Vassy Kapelos speaks with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about the future of the Conservative Party and her approach to Alberta's separatist movements.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says members of her caucus can sign whatever petitions they want to, including one pushing for a referendum on the province’s independence from Canada.

“I don’t police the responses of my MLAs, they can sign whatever petition that they want,” Smith told CTV Question Period host, Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday, adding she doesn’t know whether any of her caucus members have signed such a petition.

“But I would say that my approach, and the approach of our caucus as a united caucus, has been to support a sovereign Alberta within united Canada,” Smith added. “That means the federal government respects our areas of jurisdiction, just as we respect their areas of jurisdiction. I think we’re moving in the right direction on that, but not completely.”

READ MORE: ‘Very high level’: Alberta separatist group won’t say which Trump officials it met with

The push for a referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada appears to be gaining steam, with petition drives being held across the province in recent weeks. Separatists argue Alberta is not, and has not been treated fairly by Ottawa when it comes to natural resource development and equalization, among other issues.

Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project and one of the people leading the charge on a push for separation, has said Alberta MLAs in Smith’s caucus have signed the petition endorsing the idea of separating from Canada.

Smith told Kapelos she’s conveyed to Prime Minister Mark Carney that a way to “bring the temperature down” would be to recognize that some Liberal policies are very unpopular in some parts of the country compared to others. She cited the federal firearm buyback program as an example.

Last year, Smith’s government passed legislation to reduce the threshold for a petition to trigger a referendum. The legislation both significantly reduces the number of signatures required, and extends the time period for signatures to be collected.

READ MORE: Alberta separatist says members of Smith’s caucus have signed referendum petition

In order to move to a referendum on the question, a petition must have just shy of 178,000 signatures by May.

Asked whether she regrets changing the law to make it easier for petition to call for a referendum, given how the situation is unfolding with the push for separation, Smith said: “No.”

She said there are other referenda in the works, on other issues and called the change “a mechanism for citizens to move on issues that the government does not have on their agenda.”

Rath, meanwhile, confirmed to Kapelos — also in an interview on CTV Question Period airing Sunday — that his group has had meetings with U.S. officials over the past year to discuss the possibility of Alberta’s separation from Canada, though he wouldn’t say which members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration they have spoken with directly.

B.C. Premier David Eby said this week following a meeting of Canada’s premiers that a separatist group meeting with members of a foreign government amounts to “treason.”

READ MORE: Eby says reported Alberta separatists meeting with U.S. officials amounts to ‘treason’

Speaking at the same press conference, Smith said she and her caucus are “supportive of a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”

But she added she believes Alberta was “relentlessly attacked” by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and that governments at both the provincial and federal level need to give Albertans “hope” and show them “not just words, but with actions, that Canada can work.”

Asked again whether she believes it’s okay for members of her caucus to sign a separatist petition, regardless of whether she or her MLAs are empathetic with the sentiment that is underpinning the push for independence, Smith said she doesn’t know any MLAs who have signed a petition.

“I don’t know anyone who has signed it, so I don’t know how to answer that,” Smith said.

READ MORE: Danielle Smith steers clear of separatism as she addresses federal Conservatives in Calgary

“As soon as you tell me which caucus members have signed (the petition), we can have a conversation,” she later said. “I just don’t know that any have signed, so we’re talking about a hypothetical situation I don’t even know exists.”

Pressed again on whether her caucus should make it clear that the party wants the province to remain part of Canada, Smith said: “We need to see some action on the part of the part of the federal government.

“I’m sympathetic to the million Albertans who have lost hope that this isn’t a real change of heart on the federal government’s part, that it was a last-minute deathbed conversion to try to avoid losing an election,” Smith said, in reference to Trudeau’s resignation and his replacement with Carney.

She added it’s important to see the federal government following through on its commitments to Alberta, and pointed to the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the two governments outlining the conditions that need to be met for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific to proceed.

With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha