By Stephanie Taylor

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Article content“There’s one man who stands in the way of this pipeline getting built. It’s Mark Carney,” he said, speaking to reporters in Ottawa.Article contentThe Alberta premier has defended allocating $14 million of provincial taxpayer money to fund a technical working group, assisted by three major energy companies, as necessary given the failures of past pipeline projects, including Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway and Energy East from TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada Corporation.Article contentHer government’s goal is for private proponents to eventually come forward, but Smith says first, Carney must scrap a suite of Trudeau-era laws that she and other critics have long argued block development.Article contentIn a recent statement, federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said Alberta was well within its right to submit a proposal for consideration, adding that any project being pitched “will be evaluated against the same rules for all proponents.”Article contentAnother issue brewing for Alberta is the B.C. premier’s staunch support of a tanker moratorium that the federal government passed back in 2019, which is among the Trudeau-era laws Smith has demanded Carney lift.Article contentArticle contentAn alliance of First Nations along the B.C. coastline has called on the prime minister to maintain it, saying in a recent statement that their communities reject Smith’s proposal.Article contentWhile the Alberta premier has expressed an openness to seeing a carveout created for a particular port for her specific proposal, such as in Prince Rupert, B.C., she says she would still prefer Carney’s government to do away with the law altogether.Article content“If that is a no, then it means no one’s really serious about finding new markets. It means no one’s really serious about acting like a country,” she said.Article contentAnother issue that Smith says she has raised with Carney would be how Albertans, feeling aggrieved towards Ottawa and looking to separate, may react to seeing a pipeline proposal rejected.Article content“That’s what I’ve told the prime minister. What would it signal to that group? I take that group seriously,” Smith said.Article content– With files from BloombergArticle contentNational PostArticle contentOur website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.Article content

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