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(Bloomberg) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith believes residents of her province would reject joining the US, her press secretary said, days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighed in on a possible independence referendum in the region.
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“The overwhelming majority of Albertans are not interested” in statehood, Sam Blackett, a spokesperson for Smith, said in an emailed statement. “The Premier supports a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”
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Bessent said in a broadcast interview last week that Alberta is a “natural partner” for the US, and that he believes it should be allowed to expand oil shipments through the US.
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“They have great resources, the Albertans are very independent people. Rumoured that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not,” Bessent said, adding: “People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got.”
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A petition has been started by separatist activists in Alberta for a referendum on independence from Canada, driven in part by a belief that the government in Ottawa hasn’t done enough to accelerate projects to expand oil production, such as new pipelines.
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That sentiment persists even after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged in November that his government would support a new pipeline to the British Columbia coast with a potential capacity of 1 million barrels a day.
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Alberta accounts for about 85% of oil production in Canada, the world’s fourth-largest producer.
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The majority of that production is exported to the US through pipelines that run through the Midwest region. There’s only one pipeline running through Canada to an ocean port — the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which the federal government bought and expanded at a cost of more than C$30 billion ($21.9 billion).
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English (US)