‘Unnerving’: Calgary Mayor unsettled over Smith’s Alberta sovereignty act

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the newly introduced Alberta sovereignty act will have “big impacts” on municipalities.

“Municipalities in Alberta have lost their agency, their autonomy to serve their citizenry — if this thing goes as far as we think it might,” Gondek said Wednesday.

The act, which is titled Bill 1 —  Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act — was passed into legislature Tuesday by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

It would grant Smith and her cabinet broad powers to rewrite provincial laws behind closed doors if a resolution passes in the house identifying a federal matter deemed unconstitutional or harmful to Alberta.

Gondek, who spoke with reporters about a campaign on spending local, says she is in the “same boat as most Calgarians,” adding there was no consultation with the city.

“I don’t know that the government itself knows exactly what this holds for us,” she said. “[The provincial government] seem to be walking things back, whereas before it was ‘Yes, cabinet will be able to make decisions.’ Now it’s well, kind of, not really.'”

A statement came out from the Minister of Justice’s office on Wednesday clarifying the extent of the act.

“In no way does the Sovereignty within a United Canada Act permit cabinet to unilaterally amend legislation without those amendments being first authorized by the legislative assembly,” the statement read.

“If there is any dispute as to whether or not cabinet amended legislation outside of the specific recommendations contained in the resolution, including any amendments by the legislative assembly to the resolution, such actions would still be subject to both judicial review as well as review by the legislative assembly itself.”

Gondek found the clarification unsettling.

“Anytime you have something being introduced that’s uncertain, that requires an explanation from the ministry the next day, it’s incredibly unnerving,” Gondek said.

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She was also concerned by the fact there was no consultation with the city regarding the act, nor was there any engagement with First Nations, saying engagement needs to be in place before the act was announced.

“I’d like to be treated like a partner organization as an order of government that serves the same constituents. And right now, that hasn’t happened.”

“It’s creating unsteadiness, it is really driving forward this idea that while they are seeking some form of justice for what they feel is unconstitutional, our rights are being stripped away.”

She also says the province’s choice of words, along with its determination on what is unconstitutional, is “strange.”

“I find it interesting that the provincial government is using words like ‘harmful, violate, unconstitutional.’ There are ways in which you can determine whether something is unconstitutional, and that’s a judicial review,” Gondek said.

“This is also incredibly subjective. How do you define harmful? How do you determine that something is going to be harmful or violate the intent of the constitution? So while this thing remains subjective, I don’t think any of us really know what we’re dealing with.”

Calgary Chamber of Commerce and business leaders share concern

Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says she’s disappointed with the province’s “aggressive” approach.

“Of course we look at it through the lens of business. We know that Alberta competes with the world for capital and for talent,” Yedlin said. “When there are other places that provide more certainty that will not result in companies potentially having to put plans on hold due to legal processes that could be undertaken — capital goes to where it gets the best return — so it will be allocated somewhere else.”

Yedlin says the proposed legislation is going to “cast a shadow over Alberta” and will give pause to people considering a career in the province.

She adds businesses are facing big issues such as affordability, inflation, talent retention and recruitment, and supply chain challenges. While she says she doesn’t expect businesses to be pulling out of Alberta anytime soon, this isn’t where they want the focus of the government to be.

“The spectre of uncertainty introduced in Quebec caused Montreal — which was the biggest city in Canada before the separatists came to power — businesses left. They either left the province or they scaled down their presence in the province significantly. Let’s think about what that impact was, and how long it’s taken for Montreal to gain its footing as an economic centre, and we definitely don’t want that to happen either in Alberta or in Calgary,” Yedlin said.

“Remember, we have worked so hard. We have had seven tough years — with the energy crash and then with COVID. We have worked hard to reestablish economic growth, get a real strong foothold on diversification. We can’t risk this right now, and we see this as a risk to our economic prosperity.”

-With files from Logan Stein and The Canadian Press.