Alberta\u2019s chambers of commerce say talk of the province potentially quitting Confederation is bad for business, with one saying it\u2019s time Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s government move on from blaming former prime minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n
The Alberta Chambers of Commerce says a recent survey of members and investors suggested more than half of participants say the provincial separation issue is affecting the provincial economy and making it hard to plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlberta separation is the top business issue right now,\u201d said Shauna Feth, the chamber\u2019s chief executive, in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern isn\u2019t about ideology so much as it is about the uncertainty that that discourse creates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move comes as Smith\u2019s government makes headlines with the separation question. Smith has made clear she supports Alberta staying in Canada, but her government has also made rule changes to make it easier for a separation question to go on a referendum ballot. One group is now trying to raise the requisite number of signatures to make that happen.<\/p>\n
Smith has said she supports \u201ca sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,\u201d something the Opposition NDP has mocked as self-contradictory \u201cword salad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deborah Yedlin, head of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says they are hearing similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople (are) saying, \u2018You know what, I\u2019m just going to wait and see what happens because if this goes in the direction that I don\u2019t support, I will be either not expanding my business in this province or I will be leaving,’\u201d Yedlin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been inbound questions from larger companies who do have operations outside the province and outside the country saying, \u2018Is this real?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug Griffiths, who fronts the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, said Smith\u2019s government needs to quash the separatist talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had a choice, it would be for the Alberta government to say, \u2018Enough. We\u2019re focusing on business growth, economic growth, \u2026 not talking about leaving this country,\u201d Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing is a moot point \u2026 We\u2019re on Indigenous land. We\u2019re guests here. And if any of them say, \u2018We aren\u2019t separating,\u2019 then we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indigenous leaders have been vocally opposed to the separatist movement in Alberta. Multiple First Nations are challenging in court provincial legislation permitting citizen-led petitions that seek referendum votes, such as the ongoing campaign to put separation on a ballot.<\/p>\n
Jobs Minister Joseph Schow said this week he appreciates the chamber feedback and said the government\u2019s message to them is that it has its eye on the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to continue to focus on keeping regulation low, keeping taxes low, being a liaison between them and other opportunities (for) investment around the world, because Alberta is the best place to work,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Schow blamed investor uncertainty on policies of former prime minister Justin Trudeau that Alberta has said infringed on its constitutional jurisdiction and sabotaged its core oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
Some of these policies are being reviewed or reworked under Prime Minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Schow said the effects continue to reverberate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years of advocacy, and months of negotiations the federal government have reversed the vast majority of their anti-resource policies \u2014 the \u2018nine bad laws\u2019 \u2014 and I\u2019m hopeful that as we continue to implement the Alberta-Ottawa MOU, we will restore investor confidence in Canada,\u201d Schow wrote.<\/p>\n
He said investment in Alberta has grown and the province is a national leader in jobs and job creation.<\/p>\n
Griffiths agreed, saying things are \u201cgoing well right now,\u201d but added leaders have to think long term and putting the blame on Trudeau doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not investing over what happened in the last 10 years,\u201d Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestor uncertainty is about where you\u2019re going, not where you\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s chambers of commerce say talk of the province potentially quitting Confederation is bad for business, with one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-531502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}