The Business Council of Alberta (BCA) welcomes today’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) announcement by the Governments of Canada and Alberta. We congratulate Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney on this important agreement.
This is a significant step forward in demonstrating that the Prime Minister and the federal government are serious about enabling Canada to be an energy superpower, recognizing Alberta’s unique economic strengths and ambitions, and reaffirming our shared objective of building a stronger, more competitive, and more prosperous Canada.
The MOU will enable Alberta to realize major investments in oil and gas, energy infrastructure, power generation, and data centres. These investments will result in meaningful Indigenous economic benefits, as well as broad benefits for all Canadians through increased jobs and public programs.
While this represents an important and welcome change of course from Ottawa in the spirit of collaboration and recognition of Alberta’s contributions to Canada, the true test of today’s agreement will be in what gets done.
As the voice of Alberta’s chief executives, the BCA has consistently called for pragmatic, predictable approaches to resource, economic, and climate policy with solutions that reduce emissions, strengthen competitiveness, and attract global investment.
Today’s announcement is a strong move in that direction, and we applaud both governments for working to develop this MOU. There are still details to be worked out, including engagement with the Province of B.C. and coastal Indigenous communities, but we are optimistic that the table is now set for investment and prosperity.
We also encourage the federal government to pair today’s commitments with stronger support for skilled-trades immigration, training, and workforce development so that we have the labour force needed to build major projects in Canada.
We look forward to working with both governments to ensure the MOU delivers on its promises.
