Calgary Liberal MP calls for halt to Alberta ads against federal net-zero regs

A Calgary Liberal MP wants the Alberta government to stop its ad campaign criticizing the feds’ clean electricity regulations.

George Chahal says the campaign trumpeted by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is causing unnecessary fear and confusion among Albertans.

“Eight million dollars of Alberta taxpayers’ dollars are funding a campaign of misinformation. That’s a problem for me as a Calgarian and as an Albertan,” he said, according to a Calgary Herald report.

The ad campaign asserts that the proposed regulations, which push for an accelerated transition to clean energy, will lead to blackouts and render energy unreliable and unaffordable. Smith has been unwavering, branding the regulations as “massively unaffordable, dangerously unreliable, and utterly unconstitutional.” 

Chahal believes that the premier’s government is using the draft clean electricity regulations as a scapegoat for the sharp rise in electricity rates in Alberta, which have increased fivefold under the current leadership.

“(Smith) is playing on people’s fear by talking about blackouts,” he said.

Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz hit back at Chahal, saying he’s been “spending too much time in Ottawa listening to his ideological, out of touch, environment minister, Steven Guiltbeault.”

“Albertans and Canadians are very concerned about the impact the 2035 Clean Electricity Regulations will have on reliable and affordable electricity,” Schulz said. “But Ottawa seems intent on moving forward with their destructive and unconstitutional plans to reduce emissions on an unachievable timeline.”

Alberta Electric System Operator CEO and president Mike Law said that due to the fact that nearly 72% of Alberta’s energy supply comes from natural gas, adopting the proposed federal regulations would have devastating consequences. 

Smith’s government has been urging Canadians to put pressure on the federal government to reject its plans for a net-zero electrical grid in the next 12 years.

“Alberta will incur the highest costs of any province in Canada as a result of the federal electricity regulations. Alberta’s government believes these additional dollars should be coming from the federal government, not the pockets of Alberta’s ratepayers,” read a statement from Smith and Schulz.

Smith will be in Ottawa next week testifying before the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

The timing of the proposed regulations is another point of contention in this dispute. Smith, along with officials from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, deems the 2035 deadline for achieving clean electricity unrealistic. They advocate for delaying the imposition of these regulations until 2050, emphasizing the need for a more realistic timeline.

Chahal’s call for ending the ad campaign comes in the midst of Alberta’s vigorous resistance against the federal regulations. Smith has pledged to protect the province’s energy interests, even saying that she will use the Sovereignty Act to assert provincial jurisdiction.