We owe Alberta separatists no respect

Canada is a confederation, constituted of ten provinces and three territories, and sharing land with over 50 recognized First Nations in over 630 First Nations communities. Common among countries constituted from multiple, diverse states are threats of separatism. This has been strongest in Canada with the province of Quebec, a province that has a unique culture and language to the rest of the primarily Anglophone country. However, Alberta separatism has also been present to varying degrees and is currently being considered with an unprecedented level of seriousness. Whereas listening to the grievances of separatist groups is usually very important and can shed light on serious injustices, I would suggest that Alberta separatism differs in that it is rooted in misinformation/disinformation and social media grievance culture. Responding to these concerns with anything other than corrections of misinformation risks reifying harmful and misguided perspectives.

Why Now?

To provide a bit more context, it's worth noting why Alberta separatism is particularly on the rise at this moment in time. While there is no singular reason, a deeply unpopular federal government provided a fertile ground for existing separatists to gain traction with messages of a region of Canada (I avoid the common term 'Western' as neither British Columbia nor the Yukon Territories, lying west of Alberta, are involved in this) seemingly ignored by Ottawa. The right-wing social media ecosystem that was part of the development of the Coutts blockade (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-blockade-protesters-sentencing-sept-9-1.7317350) continued to thrive with anti-Trudeau, anti-Liberal, anti-carbon tax, and anti-federal government messaging. Alberta identity became a natural alternative to ultra-nationalism frequently seen in right-wing movements, when a Liberal federal government made nationalism at times an odd fit ("Canada is broken" being a leading narrative within these networks).

So what are the particular grievances of Alberta separatists?

1) Equalization Payments

The federal government of Canada makes payments to provincial governments in order to equalize the public services that each province can provide in the context of different provincial economies. This is part of a larging funding program in which the feds also transfer funding for health and social services. Combined, this make up about 22% of the federal budget. The current funding formula was originally developed by Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

From the table above (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Canada) you will see that Alberta receives no equalization payment and has not for a very long time. This is because the primary metric is how much tax revenue provinces are generating for themselves. High resource provinces generate a lot of tax revenue and therefore don't require federal funds to end up with the same per capita total tax revenue. From the graph below (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_provinces_and_territories_by_gross_domestic_product) you will see that the equalization payments don't necessarily parallel to GDP per capita for provinces, because a strong contributor like Quebec with a much higher service economy is generating less tax revenue than a lower GDP contributor like Alberta that has a high resource economy:

Therefore, equalization payments as an injustice to Alberta is based on two false narratives. Firstly, it has been suggested that Alberta is subsidizing the rest of the countries, with Quebec as often the target of this anger. But that's not how equalization works, it's not a transfer of funds from Alberta to Quebec (0r others), rather, it's a payment out of the federal budget to balance out tax revenues.

Secondly, the overall outcome of the current system is that provinces have equitable tax revenues. Any change to this formula that would lead to payments to Alberta would be the opposite of equality, it would mean that for some reason we give Alberta more tax revenue than any other province. If this is based on what they contribute to the Canadian economy this makes no sense either as Ontario is generating more than twice as much of our total GDP so by such an argument would instead be the recipient of any bonus funds.

2) Holding Back Oil and Gas

Another complaint levied against the federal government is that they are responsible for suppressing oil and gas development via federal regulations. However, this ignores the fact that oil and gas development has been growing significantly under the current Liberal government other than a brief pandemic downturn (source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230927/cg-c001-eng.htm):

This is seen in total production levels, increasing with no sign of slowing (source: https://www.capp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-Economic-Impact-of-Canadian-Oil-and-Gas.pdf):

Now, this doesn't mean that the federal government is letting oil and gas development run unregulated, there are many environmental laws and taxes specific to this industry (including the recently eliminated carbon tax). However, the above graphs demonstrate the feds are supporting increased development, and more importantly, a sovereign Alberta would not be free of regulations on oil and gas. This is because many of the requirements that become laws within Canada are driven by the purchasers. Should Canadian oil and gas become 'dirty' in terms of not meeting international regulations, the price would dive for Alberta resources as they could not be sold in the majority of the world. Standards for oil and gas extraction and refining are heavily driven by the purchasing/consuming nations.

3) Lacking Respect

Given my title of this post, it might seem a bit odd that I argue the idea of a lack of respect is misguided so I should clarify: I believe Albertans deserve respect, I don't believe the idea of Alberta separatism deserves respect. Within this concern I bunch several related ideas that cluster around the idea of Alberta being a distinct group of people, with distinct needs, that are ignored or impeded by a federal government located primarily in Ontario.

As I noted in the opening, countries globally have experiences of separatist groups and these frequently relate to: 1) Historical conflicts and imperialist actions of nations states; 2) Unique needs of unique cultural/religious/language groups; 3) Ethnic cleansing/genocide; 4) Full democratic rights not granted to all persons; and 5) Political responses to dictatorships. I'm sure political scientists and historians could build out this list quite a bit, but I offer it as it highlights the importance of understanding and listening to many separatist groups. Spain offers an example with many autonomous regions existing to allow for a nation across significant diversity and historical conflict (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_communities_of_Spain):

Spain has 17 autonomous regions and two autonomous cities, that are self-governing and often have their own language (as I learned in traveling to Girona in Catalonia, with only a basic knowledge of castellano Spanish rather than Catalan). In the uniqueness demonstrated in other separatist movements, we see the contrast of Alberta, equally represented within a representative democracy, consistent with the dominant culture and language, and with no history of territorial conflict with the ruling people-group.

Yes, active separatist groups primarily on social media have convinced many Albertans that they are an oppressed people group, no this is not congruent with the real harms experienced by other separatist groups.

Is Separatism Even Possible?

Unilateral separatism is not possible in Canada, it would need to be agreed upon nationally. Even then, should Alberta bring together all the provinces to agree to separation, the amount of territory the province would receive is likely far lower than they perceive as the majority is federal land (source: https://naturealberta.ca/public-lands/):

Similarly, the land is both Indigenous non-treaty territory as well as Indigenous First Nations territory (source: ):

The Indigenous and First Nations people within Alberta have been clear that they will need to be fully engaged in any decision-making around separatism. This has important legal implications even is somehow all the provinces agreed on separation.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, Alberta separatism is based primarily from misconceptions around equalization, misrepresentation of the current oil and gas situation, and a perception of grievance not connected to real cultural or historical discriminations. Separation that Albertans would actually agree to is not even likely to be possible. Therefore, rather than seriously discussing this idea, we need to shut it down similar to any other form of misinformation/disinformation. I believe this is important as social media driven grievances are not going away and we need to be better at countering them. Foolishness needs to be called foolishness and facts are all that are needed.