Chris Selley: Ottawa all but invited Alberta to flip the bird to federal laws

For years, it seemed like Ottawa just hoped the other provinces wouldn’t notice as it gave Quebec pretty much everything it wanted

Polite Laurentian society is in outrage at news Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will try to block Ottawa from imposing an emissions cap on the oil industry. “We’re kind of at the end of the negotiation, compromise phase, and we’re now in protection of our jurisdiction and protection of our industry phase,” Smith said at a Monday news conference.

A new motion under the Sovereignty Act would “make it virtually impossible for Ottawa to impose the cap in Alberta,” a source told Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid, who broke the story. The motion, unveiled Tuesday, proposes to “ensure that no provincial entity participates in the enforcement or implementation of the federal cap.”