Alberta premier says she has to rebuild relations with First Nations people

Alberta's premier says she will work to repair relationships with First Nations people after her landmark sovereignty act prompted outrage and pushback.

"I regret that my relationship with the chiefs has started off on a bad foot and I know it can be repaired," Premier Danielle Smith said in a year-end interview with CBC News earlier this month.

However, she said her "principal focus" will be ensuring Ottawa doesn't adopt more policies the newly minted premier perceives as harmful to Alberta.

Her signature policy aims to do just that.

Bill 1, the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, became law earlier this month. It allows the legislature to pass motions instructing cabinet to take actions to prevent federal laws and policies from being enforced in Alberta. It also empowers cabinet to order provincially funded organizations to ignore federal laws and policies.

Smith said an Indigenous adviser told her to ensure the act spells out that any cabinet actions will respect Indigenous people's constitutional rights.

"The entire purpose of the act was to make sure that it really was just about resetting our relationship with Ottawa, and has absolutely nothing to do with changing our relationship with First Nations," Smith said during the interview. "It was a communications issue on my part."

Many Indigenous leaders see it differently.

Last week, the Onion Lake Cree Nation launched a legal challenge of the bill, alleging it infringes their treaty rights and was crafted without proper consultation.

"As nations, we are deeply concerned that the state of Canada has let such an unconstitutional bill to move forward unchecked," Onion Lake Chief Harry Lewis said at an Edmonton news conference on Dec. 19.

The allegations have not been tested in court. Smith says she believes the bill is constitutional.

Provincial election looms large

While Smith says priorities are standing up against the federal government's plans to restrict firearms ownership and curb greenhouse gas emissions, recent polling suggests many Albertans have other problems.

An Abacus Data online survey of 1,000 Albertans in early December suggests the cost of living, improving health care and managing the province's economy are the most common top-three concerns.

The survey, which does not have a margin of error, suggests seven per cent of Albertans list federal-provincial relations as a pressing concern.

Similarly, a Leger online poll of 1,001 Albertans conducted in late November suggests 32 per cent of Albertans think the Sovereignty Act is necessary for the province to stand up against Ottawa. Another 42 per cent disagreed.

Both polls suggest slightly more Albertans would vote for an NDP than UCP government if an election were held today. And more respondents liked NDP leader Rachel Notley than found favour with Premier Smith.

Smith, who has been in the premier's office for less than three months, stares down a fixed election date of May 29, 2023. Can voters expect to see the leader, who campaigned for UCP leadership on her Sovereignty Act and protecting the rights of people unvaccinated against COVID-19, pivot to policies with more broad appeal?

The premier says she's already doing that by trying to find solutions for the besieged health-care system and introducing relief measures for Albertans' mounting expenses.

Concern about the cost, value and performance of the health system unites everyone, Smith said. She's determined to continue with the Alberta Surgical Initiative, started under Jason Kenney's UCP government, to outsource more routine surgeries to private clinics to tackle a backlog of 69,000 people on waiting lists.

Finding solutions to a shortage of family doctors will be another focus during the next six months, she said.

Don't expect big spending come budget time

After a three-year battle, the government has inked a new master agreement with Alberta doctors.

However, patients are sometimes faced with lengthy and frightening waits for ambulances, emergency room processing and hospital bed admittance.

"We know that we're going to be judged on a few things," the premier said. "When people get into an ambulance, are they going to be able to get dropped off quickly or are they going to be waiting for hours in the back of an ambulance? When they go to an emergency room, are they going to wait 29 hours before they get treated?"

The new year will also bring one-time cost relief to Alberta parents, people who receive government benefits, drivers and utility consumers.

An anticipated $12.3-billion surplus this fiscal year makes it possible as record non-renewable resource revenues gush into government coffers. Yet Smith warns people not to expect any long-term spending increases to public services in the upcoming budget, which the finance minister must table by February.

Any spending increases won't exceed inflation and Albertans should expect one-time investments like debt repayment, socking away savings or building infrastructure, Smith said.

"We still have a structural deficit because so much of our resource revenue still has to go to support operational spending," she said.

"We still have some work to do to make sure that … if we ever get back into a volatile revenue situation, we don't want to go back into deficit."