Alberta has invoked the Sovereignty Act to set limits on the exercise of federal power. But the federal government claims there is no legal basis for their actions.
Alberta invokes Sovereignty Act over federal clean electricity regulations
Premier Danielle Smith believes net-zero electricity grid by 2035 is risky and costly
Michelle Bellefontaine · CBC News · Posted: Nov 27, 2023 5:22 PM EST
Alberta’s United Conservative government has invoked its controversial Sovereignty Act for the first time by introducing a resolution to push back against the federal government’s proposed Clean Electricity Regulations.
The resolution, tabled in the Alberta legislature Monday, instructs governments and provincial entities such as the Alberta Electric System Operator and the Alberta Utilities Commission to ignore the regulations when they come into force “to the extent legally permissable.”
The resolution also raises the possibility of Alberta setting up a Crown corporation to protect the private sector companies that provide electricity in the province. If passed, the resolution would direct AESO, AUC and the Market Surveillance Administrator to consult with stakeholders on the feasibility of such a corporation.
…
Steven Guilbeault, the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the potential use of the Sovereignty Act never came up in months of meetings between federal and provincial officials as part of a working group on the CER and the oil and gas emissions cap.
…
“There is no legal basis for what Alberta is doing ,” Guilbeault told reporters on Parliament Hill.
…
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/sovereingty-act-clean-electricity-regulations-1.7041533
A video of the Premier announcing the invocation of the Sovereignty Act, and her reasons for doing so. Well worth watching – Alberta is lucky to have a straight speaking premier like Danielle Smith.
Even if the Alberta Sovereignty Act is defeated in the end, just delaying the green menace with a tangle of lawsuits is a win, a chance for more people to wake up and start pushing back. It is especially delicious that Premier Smith timed this act of defiance against green insanity almost on the eve of the international COP28 climate conference.
Related
