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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet remain firm in their opposition to Ottawa’s cap on oil and gas production. The province launched a national ad campaign Tuesday to inform Canadians the cap will lead to economic and societal ruin. 

“The proposed cap will put safe, reliable and secure energy at risk while costing tens of thousands of jobs and billions in lost federal revenue that pays for important programs, services and infrastructure. This means lost jobs, hurt families, shuttered businesses and less revenue going to the schools, hospitals, programs and services every Canadian relies on,” reads a government news release.

The Alberta government, which launched a $7 million ‘Scrap the Cap’ campaign Tuesday, hopes their efforts will convince Ottawa their cap on energy production only serves to lower the standard of living Canadians come to expect and reduce service quality. 

Print, television and social media advertisements will run nationwide until the end of November, urging Canadians to contact their MP and demand change.

“Once again, Ottawa is attempting to set policies that are shortsighted and reckless,” Smith told reporters. “We’re challenging proposed policies that would stifle our energy industry, kill jobs and ruin economies.” 

“We’re telling the federal government to forget this reckless and extreme idea and get behind Alberta’s leadership by investing in real solutions that cut emissions, not Canada’s prosperity,” she added.

If left unchanged, the cap would force Canada’s energy industry to curtail production at the expense of struggling Canadian families. When production is cut, jobs, tax revenues and the economy are cut too. 

Alberta would be hit hardest, according to the release. By 2040, the province’s GDP would decline 4.5%, resulting in 150,000 Canadians losing their jobs. It would also cost the national economy $14 billion a year. 

“It is, in effect, a cap on prosperity that would be felt across the country,” the release said. “All Canadians deserve to know the dangers of this cap, which will negatively impact their families without reducing global emissions whatsoever.”

The average Canadian family would be left with up to $419 less per month to spend on groceries, housing or fuel, further impacting the quality of life Canadians enjoy coast to coast to coast.

By 2030, the Trudeau government hopes to cut oil and gas emissions by 35% to 38% from 2019 levels. Oil and gas production accounts for more than one-quarter of Canada's emissions.

The feds already published the regulatory framework with a commitment to implement the final regulations by 2025.

The premier earlier accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault, his Minister of Environment, of maliciously targeting the oil and gas sector.

“[The] de facto production cap on Alberta's oil and gas sector amounts to an intentional attack by the federal government on the economy of Alberta,” Smith said last December.

“They're devaluing the retirement investments of millions of Canadians and they're threatening the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Albertans,” she added.

Smith previously called the cap a frivolous attempt to undermine “the unity of our country” that Albertans would not tolerate.

“Are you taking the federal government to court in regard to these regulations?” asked a reporter. “Well, there's no question that if they continue on this path, it will end up in court,” she replied. “And in court, I think we will win.”

Alberta’s premier said her cabinet and caucus would do everything in its power to put up “constitutional shields” that protect Alberta’s commitment to attract investment and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“The federal government must stay out of our province's constitutional jurisdiction and instead work with us to align our emissions reduction efforts with our effective made-in-Alberta plan,” she said at the time, maintaining her approach to practical emission offsets can work concurrently with developing its energy resources.

The oil sands emissions intensity per barrel has fallen 23% since 2009 and is expected to decline another 28% by 2035. Alberta’s overall emissions, electricity emissions and methane emissions are all declining, even as energy demand rises and the economy grows.

“Alberta is reducing emissions through common sense, incentives and technologies, not taxes or punitive regulations,” reads the government release.