Alberta’s government is asking a judge to strike down a First Nation’s constitutional challenge of its sovereignty act, arguing the law hasn’t had any impact on treaty rights.
Premier Danielle Smith won leadership of the United Conservative Party with the sovereignty act as her signature proposal in 2022, and it became her flagship first law.
Smith said the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act was needed to push back against federal encroachment into provincial jurisdiction.
When she invoked it for the first time, Smith conceded she didn’t need the law to implement new measures to fight against Ottawa’s energy regulations and that the act’s use was symbolic.
Onion Lake Cree Nation argues the act is unconstitutional because it goes against the Treaty 6 relationship with the Crown and should be declared unenforceable.
The province argues the act doesn’t authorize anything that would go against the Constitution or federal law and that Onion Lake’s claim doesn’t show the act has impacted any treaty rights.
