OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday she hopes the memorandum of understanding between her province and the federal government can be completed soon because Albertans need to see that “Canada can work.”
Smith met with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Friday, as the two governments push forward with their energy pact, but also as Alberta is facing the possibility of a referendum on Alberta separation.
Organizers behind a petition calling for that vote said they turned in more than 300,000 signatures to Elections Alberta earlier this week. A court order is blocking the verification of those signatures while a judge considers a legal challenge mounted by a group of Alberta First Nations which argues the petition process violates treaty rights.
A decision in that case is expected soon.
In the meantime, Alberta and Ottawa are negotiating on the energy and environment pact, in a bid to overcome some long-standing disagreements between the two governments about oil and gas production, and climate regulations.
Both Smith and Carney said Friday progress has been made on the agreement, which outlined several conditions that need to be met before a new bitumen pipeline can be approved, including requirements for carbon capture and storage.
“I know industry is getting a bit impatient, Albertans are getting a little bit impatient. And if we’re going to move forward with that MOU, I hope it happens in the next number of days, because I think in Alberta, there does need to be a demonstration that Canada can work,” Smith said before her private meeting with Carney.
Neither leader directly referred in their public remarks to the separatist push in Alberta or mentioned pipelines, though Smith has insisted a new pipeline must be built.
After the meeting, Smith posted on social media that the two made “significant progress” on an agreement for a west coast pipeline and carbon pricing.
“I am now much more confident this will be completed well before Alberta’s west coast pipeline submission to the Major Projects Office next month,” Smith wrote.
During a photo op before their meeting, Carney said he and Smith have made progress since the initial federal-provincial co-operation agreement was signed in November, citing a deal on methane emissions, measures for enhanced oil recovery and plans to streamline project approvals.
Carney told The Canadian Press last week that a new pipeline is now “more probable than possible,” in part because global energy markets have been upended by the war in Iran.
“We’re working to make Canada work better for Albertans and for all Canadians. And when Canada works well, it’s good for the world,” Carney said Friday.
The original deadline to complete the conditions laid out in the memorandum of understanding was April 1. That deadline has since been moved to July 1.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2026.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press
