Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her province and Quebec are united in their desire to resist federal overreach.
During a speech to a business group in Montreal, Smith said Alberta and Quebec are frustrated with a federal government that wants to impose its will on provinces.
As an example she used Ottawa’s decision to ask the Supreme Court to set limits on how Quebec and other provinces can invoke the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause.
Smith says she supports Quebec’s pre-emptive use of that clause in its secularism law to shield the legislation from some Charter challenges.
The Alberta premier also pitched the need for closer economic ties between provinces in her speech at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.
She says Ontario and Quebec have a strong manufacturing base that could supply Alberta with equipment such as coil tubing, drill bits and steel pipe, all of which the province currently buys from the United States.
Smith said she’s not pushing for a pipeline project through Quebec right now, but believes the province should develop its own natural gas to reduce its reliance on the United States.
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