In a posting on X, former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said, “Voting for separation to 'send a message' means endorsing a separatist movement that opposes the new West Coast pipeline.”

Kenney was referencing an interview of Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Mitch Sylvestre on CTV, where Sylvestre said the Pathways Project to capture and sequester carbon dioxide in Alberta could potentially pollute water supplies.

Carbon capture is one of the conditions being imposed on Alberta in order to attain Ottawa’s approval of a new bitumen pipeline, so Kenney has made the leap that Sylvestre’s opposition to carbon capture translates to opposition to the bitumen pipeline itself.

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There are a couple of issues with where Kenney went with his case.

For one, the carbon capture project and the pipeline are separate projects linked by policy. A person can support one while opposing the other, as appears to be the case with Sylvestre. The debate over the merits or risks of carbon capture projects is a separate one to the debate over gaining access for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.

Secondly, Mitch Sylvestre only represents one group among many proponents for Alberta independence. He is a prominent figure in the movement but does not speak for it as a whole. The disparate nature of the referendum campaign has made for some mixed messaging regarding policy goals from the independence side, which has caused confusion at times. Nobody’s statements can be fairly attributed to represent the entire movement.

Kenney misrepresented what Sylvestre had said by framing it as opposition to a West Coast pipeline and also incorrectly implied the statement represented the movement.