Article submitted by Josh Andrus of Project Confederation

A lot of media attention of late has been focused on the Emergencies Act testimonies in Ottawa and Danielle Smith’s rise to the Premier’s Office here in Alberta.

However, the biggest development in federal/provincial politics in the last week might actually have happened in Saskatchewan, where Premier Scott Moe has taken a firm stance against the federal government in a document entitled Drawing the Line: Defending Saskatchewan’s Economic Autonomy.

The paper clearly sets out a problem and then proposes specific solutions.

First, the problem…

The Saskatchewan government has identified nine different federal climate change policies that are estimated to cost the province a total of $111 billion between 2022 and 2035 – the approximate halfway point to the federal government’s 2050 net-zero targets.

The costs of each of the nine policies are:

• Federal Carbon Tax: $24.7 billion;
• Oil and Gas Methane Mandate: $6.3 billion;
• Oil and Gas Emissions Cap: $2.6 billion;
• Fertilizer Mandate: $19.3 billion;
• Clean Fuel Regulations: $34.9 billion;
• Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate: $10.3 billion;
• Federal Output Based Pricing System: $12.5 billion;
• Agriculture Methane Initiatives: $0.5 billion;
• Landfill Methane Mandate: $0.2 billion.

Don’t forget – these are just the direct costs.

We all know that the energy industry powers every other industry and, since energy is required to create almost every other product, as energy prices increase, costs for consumer goods will undoubtedly rise across the board as well.

Scott Moe and his team have a clear understanding of the problem and are deeply concerned about the impacts federal environmental policy can have on the economy.

For a province like Saskatchewan, where total provincial revenue for 2022 was just $17.2 billion, $111 billion is a gigantic cost.

And if that’s the cost to our neighbours, imagine what it will cost here in Alberta!

Remember too, this is just the first half of the federal government’s 2050 plan!

The economic costs of Net Zero 2050 are completely lost on the Trudeau government.

The 2021 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the constitutionality of the Carbon Tax, as we noted at the time, creates a dangerous precedent where the federal government can essentially trample all over the constitutional jurisdiction of provinces using the Peace, Order, and Good Governance Clause embedded in the constitution.

This means that the Supreme Court has effectively ruled that the federal government can take control of practically any issue, simply by claiming that it is a matter of national concern – completely ignoring provincial jurisdiction.

Consider that the definition of Confederation, as espoused by the Oxford English Dictionary, is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action.

Instead, what we now have is a federal government that has decided, upon the alter of climate change, to sacrifice our livelihoods and, with them, the very idea of Canada itself.

If we want to save this country, we need substantial reforms to the way this country is governed.

Thankfully, the Saskatchewan government’s paper also proposes some solutions that include:

• Provincial legislation to clarify and protect constitutional rights belonging to the province.
• Pursuing greater autonomy over immigration policy to ensure Saskatchewan has the people it needs.
• Better recognition of Saskatchewan industry’s contributions to sustainable growth – for example, developing a carbon credit market to support our natural resource industries.
• Preparing to take legal actions, legislative or otherwise, to maintain control of electricity, fertilizer emission/use targets and oil and gas emissions/production.

Here at Project Confederation, we’re very supportive of these ideas – in fact, many of them are ideas we’ve been promoting not just for Alberta, but for all of the west, since we launched as an organization.

So, props to Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan government for pushing us down the right path.

With your continued support, we can’t help but be excited about what we are capable of as we move forward.

Having seen significant success in Alberta already, we will be expanding our work all across Saskatchewan and the other western provinces in the coming months, as we take on Ottawa and prepare for the onslaught of a hostile federal government over the next few years.

If you’d like to get involved in our campaigns, you can sign up to volunteer with us here.

We also need financial support to continue with our work.

If you can afford to help fund our important work, please click here to make a contribution:

Thank you again to everyone for their help with this campaign and we look forward to working with you on many more issues in the future.

Regards,

Josh Andrus
Executive Director
Project Confederation