‘Black cloud’: Alberta’s latest fight with Ottawa could drive oilpatch investment away [Video]

As the province and Ottawa take part in yet another constitutional squabble over jurisdiction, some oil and gas sector watchers are worried about the effect on the industry caught in the middle.

On Tuesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signalled her government’s intent to table a motion invoking the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act to push back against federal draft regulations that would require oil and gas producers in Canada to limit greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent below 2019 levels. 

The Alberta Sovereignty Act is intended to allow the province to declare federal laws unconstitutional or harmful, and to issue orders to provincial entities not to comply with federal rules.

The motion begins by asserting Alberta’s jurisdiction over the “exploration, development, conservation, management and production” of non-renewable natural resources in the province.

It would designate emissions data as proprietary information owned exclusively by the Alberta government, with all reporting of that data to be at the province’s …