EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s looming single-use plastics ban of being a direct attack on her province’s oil and gas industry, vowing to put an end to the proposal.
While speaking in the Alberta legislature on Monday, Smith said that it’s “absurd” that the Trudeau federal government has “intervened in our area over managing our petrochemical industry.”
She also blasted the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) for supporting “something as frivolous as imposing a ban on plastic straws,” which creates “uncertainty in our petrochemical industry.”
Just recently, the Trudeau Liberals announced they want to ban some single-use plastic items such as spoons, forks, and cups as part of their effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030.
Smith further blasted this move by Trudeau as having nothing to do with helping the environment, but rather it being a direct and unprovoked attack on Alberta’s livelihood, its oil and gas industry.
“They have declared plastics toxic for one reason and one reason only, because they want to intervene in our area of jurisdiction, to do this again and again and again, and that’s why we’re challenging them in court,” said Smith.
She then accused the Trudeau government of creating “uncertainty as we end up trying to do broad cross-border trade.”
In response to Trudeau’s efforts, Smith’s attorney general has filed notice with the Federal Court of Canada to argue that the Trudeau government’s decision to call plastic “toxic” unfairly intrudes into Alberta’s jurisdiction.
Plastics and the Sovereignty Act
Just recently, Alberta passed Bill 1: Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act, known colloquially as the “Sovereignty Act.”
With this new legislation, Alberta now has a legal framework to push back against “unconstitutional” federal government overreach.
Smith said that her Sovereignty Act is about “saving Canada,” by allowing her province to assert itself as an equal partner in the confederation.
“I’m not talking about leaving Canada. I’m talking about saving Canada,” said Smith. “I’m talking about how we’re going to be able to assert the way this country is supposed to work. We are a federalist nation. We are not a unitary state where the federal government dictates.”
Asserting that Alberta has the “exclusive right to pass laws,” Smith charged that “The federal government violates [Alberta’s rights] every day by declaring plastics toxic so they can take [the province] over by trying to enforce the emissions cap on our fertilizer… [and] on oil and gas.”
Trudeau recently accused the act of being a political “tool” that Alberta is using to pick a “fight” with his government, despite previously saying he would “work” with the province and its new law.
Since becoming Prime Minister in 2015, Trudeau has pushed a radical “climate change” agenda which has increased costs for many products, primarily due to his imposition of a punitive and ever-increasing “carbon tax” on gas and diesel.
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil-fuels” in favor of a transition to less reliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – of which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
Trudeau’s goals are not without criticism, with even one former Liberal MP blasting his efforts as “beyond farcical” and “irresponsible.”
Alberta in particular has had a history of fighting the federal government when it comes to asserting its autonomy over its natural resources.
In fact, in 1980, Trudeau’s father, then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, famously attacked Alberta’s oil and gas sectors by introducing the much-hated national energy program (NEP), which severely hampered Alberta’s and other provinces’ energy industries.