Mark Carney finds a brand new way to clash with Alberta

“It’s not a mom and dad versus the children relationship,” Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Grant Hunter says of the Alberta-federal government dynamic. “It is an equal co-partnership.” Photo by David Bloom/Postmedia/File

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Ottawa and Alberta: Same old, same old.

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“We are fighting with each other about who owns the land, who owns the rights to the water, which group has precedence over that group,” says Grant Hunter, Alberta’s minister of environment and protected areas.

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“Meanwhile, we’re getting our butts kicked by the Americans.”

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Hunter has only held the portfolio since January, taking over after Rebecca Schulz announced she’d be stepping away from politics.

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He inherited a file scarred by years of trench warfare with Ottawa — most notably with former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, the ex-Greenpeace activist who seemed determined to throttle Alberta’s oil and gas sector. Prime Minister Mark Carney eventually moved Guilbeault aside. His successor, Toronto Liberal Julie Dabrusin, rolled out Ottawa’s glossy new Nature Strategy in late March: $3.8 billion to meet the federal 30-by-30 conservation target (which would protect 30 per cent of Canada’s land and water by 2030).

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Hunter’s first notice came via a brief text from Dabrusin: “We’re excited about rolling out the 30-by-30 plan and look forward to your feedback.”

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That was it. No prior consultation with Alberta. No recognition of provincial jurisdiction over land and resource management. Hunter’s response was swift and pointed. On April 7 he issued a blunt public statement that laid bare the core differences.

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“Federal reporting measures do not capture the full picture,” it reads, “focusing on narrow definitions of protected land while excluding broader actively managed landscapes and only recognizing lands permanently dedicated to biodiversity conservation.”

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Alberta, Hunter argues, already surpasses the spirit — and the reality — of 30-by-30 under a practical metric. Nearly 60 per cent of the province — roughly 40 million hectares of Crown land — is actively managed and conserved. Within that total, 16 per cent is in parks and conservation areas, 15 per cent in the Rockies and foothills, and about four per cent consists of working landscapes such as low-impact cattle grazing leases.

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These are not sterilized preserves; they are living, productive lands cared for by the people who actually live on them.

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“It’s pretty stringent what they’re putting forward,” Hunter says, “for them not to recognize our farmers and ranchers, who have been stewards of the land — probably the best stewards you’ll ever find.”

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Before taking on the environment portfolio, Hunter built a national reputation as Alberta’s first associate minister of red tape reduction. When he started in 2019, the province earned failing grades from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. By 2021, Alberta had its first-ever A grade.

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That experience shapes his current warning: Ottawa’s rigid, one-size-fits-all approach risks sterilizing Alberta’s ability to respond to critical mineral demands, energy needs, or economic shocks. And it’s not as if Canada has a reputation for lean governance: A headline in this week’s Financial Times of London blares, “Canada’s Red Tape Is Worse Than Trump Tariffs.”