From Free Alberta Strategy:

A "memorandum of understanding" on energy and environment policy between Alberta and Ottawa is on its way.

It could arrive as soon as Thursday or a little later.

But, either way, details are already leaking out.

In short, Alberta is going to get the pipeline we're already constitutionally guaranteed, but only via exemptions to problematic laws (rather than those laws being repealed) and also only in exchange for accepting more stringent environmental policy imposed by Ottawa.

As always, the devil will be in the details, so we'll provide a full review of the agreement once it's released.

But, while we wait, we thought we'd do an analysis on the progress that has been made (or rumoured) on the nine non-negotiable demands Premier Danielle Smith made of Mark Carney when he became Prime Minister:

Repeal Bill C-69

Ottawa has made no move toward repealing Bill C-69 - the law that blocks pipelines remains fully in place.

Ontario and Manitoba have recently signed cooperation agreements with Ottawa on this issue, and an agreement with Saskatchewan is expected to be signed soon, so we will keep an eye on this issue.

Lift the West Coast Tanker Ban

The West Coast Tanker Ban remains in place, and has strong support from both the provincial NDP government in British Columbia, and many Liberal MPs in Mark Carney's government.

The memorandum of understanding with Alberta is rumoured to include the possibility of case-by-case exemptions, but only if certain First Nations groups and the BC government approve, which seems problematic.

Scrap the Clean Electricity Regulations

Ottawa has abandoned its 2035 net-zero electricity target but has not scrapped the regulations - instead, it demands even deeper emissions reductions after 2050, keeping Alberta under federal control.

This is another area where there is rumoured to be progress in the memorandum of agreement, though, so we'll see.

Eliminate the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap

The memorandum of understanding is also rumoured to make changes to the oil and gas emissions cap, though only in exchange for Alberta accepting several other problematic policies, including an increase in the industrial carbon tax and expensive investments into carbon capture technology.

Ottawa is effectively saying Alberta must accept multiple new harmful policies to gain relief from one.

End the Single-Use Plastics Ban

There is no federal movement to reverse the ban.

Alberta continues to be subjected to a law that infringes on provincial jurisdiction.

Abandon the Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate

In early September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a "pause" to the mandate for 2026 and announced that the government would be conducting a 60-day review of the policy.

It has now been more than 80 days, but nothing has been announced - a government official did recently tell federal MPs that an update would be coming sometime in winter, though.

Return Oversight of the Industrial Carbon Tax to the Provinces

Rather than restoring Alberta’s control, Ottawa is pressuring the province to increase industrial carbon prices to qualify for exemptions.

This is the opposite of autonomy.

Guarantee Full Access to Oil and Gas Corridors

As mentioned above, Ottawa has offered only vague nods to potential approval for a single pipeline in exchange for several concessions.

Problematically, though, this appears to be a one-off deal, rather than a real change in policy to allow for pipelines - never mind multiple oil and gas corridors to move resources freely north, east, and west.

Halt Federal Censorship of Energy Companies

Ottawa continues to maintain its greenwashing and regulatory powers, leaving Alberta energy companies at risk of being silenced or penalized.

Ironically, these policies also affect many of the companies trying to implement cleaner technology - like the Pathways Alliance - that the federal government is considering subsidizing.

In general, instead of repealing these problematic laws, the Carney government appears ready to offer Alberta “exceptions” - special permissions that keep all the bad legislation in place.

Obviously, exceptions to bad laws are better than no exceptions to bad laws.

But, overall this is still very problematic.

It means that Ottawa keeps all the power, while Alberta only gets a temporary one-off pass.

We'll wait to see the details of the agreement before making bigger pronouncements.

But, no matter what the agreement says, we will continue to push for these laws to be completely repealed - not merely paused, tweaked, or selectively avoided.

Anything less leaves Alberta vulnerable in the long run.

The Free Alberta Strategy has always stood for real, structural change - not symbolic gestures.

We will continue to press for full provincial autonomy, the respect of our constitutional powers, and the permanent removal of federal policies that damage Alberta’s economy.

This is a pivotal moment. Ottawa is feeling the pressure.

Now is the time to push harder!