Alberta Needs To Ask A Different Question / By Emma May and Ted Kouri

Emma May is the Calgary-based founder of Sophie Grace and Charles Real Estate. Ted Kouri is the Edmonton-based founder and president of Incite.

When Premier Jason Kenney launched the Fair Deal Panel last November, many people wondered if it was asking the right questions. Now, with the Panel’s report released to the public, we have our answer.

Asking how Alberta can get a “fair deal” from the rest of Canada was always bound to elicit a certain set of ideas, and many of them were floated the moment the panel was launched. Now that the report is public, it’s clear that most of these ideas are about creating political leverage and a better negotiating position, rather than growing our economy and building a long-term vision for the future of our province. This is not a critique of the panelists, who had a challenging task. It is a critique of the narrow, combative focus that was signaled by the very questions posed when the panel launched.

The main premise of the Fair Deal Panel is that our province is getting the short end of the proverbial stick from confederation. Underlying and fueling that sentiment is a belief that the rest of an ungrateful Canada is frustrating our capability to provide for them and ourselves by developing our natural resources. The solution? Enhance our bargaining position in confederation by demanding more from Ottawa and taking on more responsibilities ourselves.

Premier Kenney pointed out in November, as he has many times before and since, that this strategy is borrowed from Quebec, which is perceived to have gotten more out of confederation by taking such measures to improve their bargaining position. But there is a big miscalculation in this logic. Surely any federal government’s willingness to pay extra attention to Quebec’s interests is driven more by political realities like the size of its population, the number of votes and seats in the province, and its demonstrated willingness to vote for different parties in any given election, than by the existence of its provincial police force or administrative system for collecting taxes.

Even more importantly, for all the noise that Quebec has made as confederation’s squeaky wheel, it has paid dearly for the grease it received, thanks to the separatist threat that hung over the province. For example, between 1976 and 1985 more than 700 businesses decamped from the province to Ontario, with the entire financial sector eventually shifting their head offices from Montreal to Toronto. In order to fill the fiscal hole that was created, Quebec’s governments took on more and more debt — a legacy that’s still with the province today.

That’s not a future that Alberta should want any part of. And for all the talk about striking a better deal with Ottawa, most of the ideas the Fair Deal Panel’s report discusses will not actually address the real challenges Alberta faces right now. Holding a referendum on equalization or having our own police force won’t help us adapt to a changing global economy, build a stronger technology ecosystem, foster a culture of entrepreneurship, grow our tourism industry, or take advantage of the opportunities created by the ongoing energy transition. These are the ideas we need to be discussing.

When we frame the issues in “with us or against us” terms, we alienate potential future customers, employees, investors and trading partners from across Canada. Painting Alberta as a frustrated, defiant, and isolated island demanding our “fair share” from Ottawa won’t create the future we want, and it certainly won’t help us get our natural resources to market. Instead, we make the situation worse.

The Fair Deal Panel report does highlight one important truth: we desperately need a different way of thinking, both about our relationship with the rest of the country and our own destiny as a province. For too long, our political conversations in Alberta have been conducted in the language of grievance and frustration. Now, it’s time for us to expand our political vocabulary. It’s time to start talking more about what’s possible in Alberta instead of what isn’t. And it’s time that we struck a fair deal with our own future — one that our children and grandchildren will ultimately inherit.

In order to do that, we need to put everything on the table. That includes ideas that aren’t popular, and realities that aren’t comfortable. Rather than asking what the rest of the country should be doing for us, we ought to be asking what we can do for each other. How might we create pathways to future prosperity, if we look ahead with foresight, make use of the many talents and resources we have, and find new ways to work together?

This province is filled with talented and creative people who want to build a better future here, both for themselves and their children and grandchildren. Their interests are not served by exploiting the disagreements we might have with our fellow Canadians, or by prioritizing partisanship over good policy. It’s time for political and civic leaders of all stripes in Alberta to start talking about our future in ways, and with words, that expand our range of possibilities.