When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the creation of her Alberta Next panel, which would offer Albertans an opportunity to contribute to issues for referendums, I decided to make a written submission. I’m an Albertan, and I certainly have some thoughts about what Alberta ought to do next.

I visited the Alberta Next website and discovered that the purpose of the panel was giving Albertans a say “in how to strengthen our sovereignty within a united Canada” and in how to “protect our province from Ottawa’s continued attacks on Alberta’s economic well-being.” So much for a submission—I fundamentally disagreed with the basic premise of the panel exercise. Alberta doesn’t need its sovereignty strengthened nor is Ottawa attacking the province’s economic well-being. I wasn’t about to participate to this nonsense.

So where should Alberta be going next? Not, methinks, where our government is currently leading us. At least not in the realm of energy. Here it’s greenhouse gasses all the way.

Crude oil production reached a record high in 2024 for the fourth year in a row, driven by the tar sands sector. The Canadian-taxpayer funded Trans Mountain pipeline expansion began operation in 2024, providing Alberta crude oil with increased access to the coast and markets abroad. One of the world’s biggest “carbon bombs” continues to explode.

Last year Alberta’s oil and gas sector exceeded the province’s self-imposed limit on annual natural gas flaring for a second year in a row. The government’s response? It directed the province’s energy regulator to terminate the limit.

Under the province’s carbon pricing scheme for large industrial emitters, facilities that meet benchmarks set by the province can earn credits and facilities that don’t must compensate by purchasing credits from other facilities or paying into a fund. The carbon price for the credits was set to increase to $170 per tonne by 2030. The price has now been frozen at $95 per tonne and the program stalled.

While Alberta’s abundant sun and wind have led to significant growth in renewables projects, the province has imposed policies that have created uncertainty among investors. Furthermore, the land allowed for renewable energy installations has been severely restricted. According to the Alberta Wilderness Association, “The current restrictions use arbitrary thresholds not supported by science, and as previously, there is no indication that these restrictions will be applied to the more destructive oil and gas or mining industries.”

Aside from all this, the government engages in a never-ending assault on federal environmental policies, claiming that Ottawa is out to sabotage “Alberta’s core industries” even while that same Ottawa spends $34 billion to build a pipeline to the west coast for the province’s bitumen. The premier seems determined to inflame public opinion against the federal government, now through a set of referendum questions that will no doubt include one on separation. Some Alberta Next.

The real problem is not, as Premier Smith would have it, the federal government encroaching on the province’s sovereignty. It is a matter of the federal government attempting to act in the best interests of all of us while having to deal with a recalcitrant province that gets rich off the very thing that is causing the problem. The best next Alberta would be a much greener Alberta.