A referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada “can have an effect” on investor confidence in the province, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday.
Carney was in Nova Scotia, speaking to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. When asked whether he thought an Alberta referendum could impact investor confidence, Carney said, “It can, yeah. It can have an effect.”
Ottawa will continue working with Alberta on energy co-operation, he added.
“Our strategy with Alberta has been to go right to the heart of the issue, which is the pipeline. But what else comes with the pipeline pathways? An actual carbon market that works in Alberta,” he said, adding that Canada would also seek to build more nuclear power infrastructure in the province.
“Having everything on the table, rolling up your sleeves, working on it — that’s the way to address it. Showing that the federation works, and it has benefit. It has a huge immediate payoff if we get it right,” he said.
“We’re making good progress with Alberta. There’s more to be done, but we’re making very good progress.”
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Speaking at event later in the day, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said global energy CEOs “want to invest in Canada.”
“They view Canada as a stable, reliable, predictable place that believes in free trade, which believes in multilateralism, which believes in the right values, which believes we need to do that in partnership with Indigenous peoples and with First Nations,” Hodgson said.
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In November 2025, the federal government and Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding that commits them to working toward building an oil pipeline to the West Coast.
The two governments agreed to terms that commit Ottawa to adjusting the West Coast tanker ban if a pipeline project is approved as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act and provides “opportunities for Indigenous co-ownership and shared economic benefits.”
Last month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said immigration levels are overwhelming the province’s core social services and announced that a referendum will take place this year, asking residents to weigh in on nine questions addressing both that and possible changes to Canada’s Constitution.
Carney needs a bullet in his head.
Guess global wants to promote false information to Canadian citizens. Block the truth from the public. When people act against treasonous organization guess the journalist are the front line future victims, then the owners.
Carney is not Trudeau. This man has worked incredibly hard to make the best life possible for all Canadians. He is highly respected on the world stage, not an international joke like our previous leader. Danielle Smith has proven herself untrustworthy, and her desperation to be apart of the US is ripping our country apart.
The LPC has been driving away investment for over a decade
Carney is an expert at this at least
Dale Earnhardt…..Almost forgot, how much more is vehicle registration for your EV? and did your homeowners insurance go up due to the possibility of parking in the garage and the battery spontaneously combusting?
Dale Earnhardt….How much is a new battery? and what happens if it goes dead and won’t take a charge. I would also like to know how much electronics are going to cost when they fail, part’s and labor please?
Eight bucks to recharge my EV for the week.
U see pee infiltrated by middle easterns but propping up taking back Alberta nutts?
How are MHcare investigations coming along??
Not a hope that you crazy separatists will win a referendum. Waste of everyone’s time and money.
Really Carney? Not the fact you and your Liberal swine have decimated our economy? By your own climate change policy and ‘no business case for our gas’, mentality, you have f*cked this country! No one will deal with Canada because of YOU!
What investment? No real GDP growth and no foreign investment since 2015.
I agree, investors are waiting for Alberta separation. If that happens, investors will be tripping over each other to invest in a low tax, low red tape Alberta.
Sure that’s what Carney says, but keep in mind he is the top LIEberal and pretty much everything that spews forth is just that.
Mark Carney.
Why does that name sound familiar?
Oh that’s the guy that we elected to vacation around the world and feed Canadians B.S. about how great our nation will become in the future as long as we are willing to starve and suffer now.
Hammers and Sickles Up !!!
@AM: You get a grip yourself and answer the simple question: How much to fill up your gas powered pick-up this week???
My charge was eight buvks. Maybe answer instead of a dumb ass insult.
AB is leaving this sheet-wh0le, that used to be the great Canada…this fiasco of Canada that TrudeauCarney created… and now TrudeauCarney is scared sheet – less that his cash cow is on the off-ramp!
Carney sounds nervous about Albertans exercising their Democratic rights. Good! Alberta’s only hope is to get off the sinking ship that is Canada, and leave the corrupt Elbozos with what they deserve. NOTHING!
Yet giving away all the land rights exudes confidence in Canada ha ha ha
JV are we having the threesome yet or not? Roy Stephenson is here too, with his strap-on. Did you bring yours too? You’re way too small.
Remember, i’m the moron near the beggining of this forum that tried to fool you all into thinking Alberta doens’t own the majority of it’s oil, but the Feds do. lol
I’m a White Guilt-ridden, T D S sufferring, TikTok educated, w okester who doesn’t know jack sh *t about economics or politics. Likewise with my buddy Che Guevara. We hate that Alberta is Conservative yet hugely successfully. Why else have they been experiencing an emmigration overload from other parts of Canada. Che and I, and others, are just scared sh **less of the possibility Alberta could separate. It might mean less free-stuff for us.
Edison, how much oil went into making your “green” car? The tires, the seats, the plastic exterior, the plastic interior…get a grip.
Then again what is my stupid azz saying? If Alberta separates, they free themselves from all the red tape and beaurocratic burdens of the Federal Canadian government, who does nothing but sabotage Alberta. Foreign investors know all about this now. Alberta and private companies would build their own pipelines. And they can run them south through the U.S. if Canada dissallowed them running through the rest of Canada.
You’ve kidding, really! Who in their right mind would invest in a separate Alberta, particularly if someone like D. Smith was involved!??
nacho business – I love it when the racist white nationalists in Canada start victimizing themselves. Their tears taste oh so sweet
Danielle Smith has this rare ability to ruin absolutely everything that WAS good about Alberta. When is election time???
So many $ flunky comments.
Investors want one thing: economic stability ( predictable stocks).
West to BC or east to Saskatchewan both look better to investors for that. No brainer. But hurry up and waste this money.
JV…. the racist indian, not a chance but maybe ask how the down syndrome and the special needs folks feel about your disparaging comments.
nacho business – awww did I hurt your feelings?
Guevara – There’s no such thing as “New Alberta”. There’s only Alberta Canada
Yeah because creating the nightmare that is currently Canada will make investors feel very safe. What a joke.
@JV
Based on your argument, FN can just say the oil is in our land and will separate from new AB.
JV….It’s j v the racist indian, first you bad mouth down syndrome people and now the special needs.
No brainer! Rich people are not stupid to invest their money here when they see these clowns separatists. They know they have uneducated and have no how a country functions.
nacho business – What are you even talking about? You seriously sound like a special needs child trying to put a sentence together
It’s more like the Alberta Referendumb 😂
After we WEXIT and shed the absolute nonsense of the east investor confidence will increase slowly but will increase indeed.
Again, no one answered my question.
My EV recharged for the week for eight bucks.
How much for a gas powered pick-up?
Why is betting on the Hormuz Strait smart?
Of course, i’m a total idiot as everyone that knows me tells me all the time. A 5-second Google search revealed to me that Alberta does basically own the oil below them, not the federal government:
“The vast majority of oil under Alberta belongs to the Province of Alberta, not the federal government of Canada. Under the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Act, Alberta owns and manages 81% of the mineral rights (including oil/bitumen). Alberta regulates development and collects royalties, though some oil is on federal, private, or First Nations lands.”
What has happened to the investor confidence in all of Canada over the last 10 years? Hard to understand how anyone could fall for such stupidity, but based on the polls we sure have a lot of them.
These idiots in Alberta still think all of that oil belongs to them. Well it doesn’t. It belongs to Canada. So does the land. Good luck with that referendum though. It looks like you’re just going to have to find out the hard way. Too bad so sad
Carnival Carney still does not get it. Alberta does not want dirty Nuclear. He is continuing to focus on his ‘energy’ not on oil and gas. And he has still not given up on his carbon tax, like he promised during the election.
Why wait for a pipeline? Simply remove the tanker ban. It is the chicken and egg, until tankers can come and get oil, it will be difficult to get millions invested into a pipeline. He has made 0 progress.
He is still trying to give pipeline ownership to the natives. WHY?!!!
They have yet to invest anything, they have just been given money.
The Strait of Hormuz is an “ideology?”
I charged my EV for eight bucks for the week.
Your -gas guzzling pick-up was how much?
Been a yet now: we aren’t pumping any more oil today than last year. No new pipelines are complete, let alone even started to build. These people are jokes. Not serious. They have ruined a great country with their ideologies.
lol@ “Mr.” You can’t even spell “business” let alone lecture about it. Danielle sure knows cancer though. Google Danielle and cancer comments. Great doc!
The confidence the investors lack is not in Alberta but rather the busienss-destroying actions of the Liberals of the last decade. Moron concerned with silly issues than real life. How anyone voted for this madness is beyond a rational mind.
Looks like hes going to try and block us from voting on a referendum question?!
Mark should go back to epstein island