Luc Juillet (University of Ottawa)
In recent months, Alberta’s strong reaction to the anticipated federal Clean Electricity Regulation, including its stated intent to use its Alberta Sovereignty Act, has made renewable policy a highly contentious political issue and depicts provinces as barriers to the growth of renewables. Yet, the need for an energy transition has been challenging provinces to transform their electricity systems for many years and many have built significant wind power capacity, including Alberta and Nova Scotia, which are leading the country in this area. In this perspective, the ability of the federal government to respect and leverage the strengths of provincial policy designs while encouraging further action will be central to a successful national energy transition. In this regard, it is striking how Nova Scotia, which significantly increased its wind capacity in the recent past, has adopted a more cooperative stance toward federal intervention.
To explain this difference in provincial positions on federal electricity policy and ascertain the challenges represented by the development of a coherent national policy framework, the paper compares the history, framing and design of wind policies in Alberta and Nova Scotia over the last fifteen years. Drawing from policy documents, interviews and a content analysis of regional media (Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, Chronicle Herald, Saltwire), we argue that the provinces’ wind policies differ markedly due the structure of their electricity markets, dominant party ideology and problem framing, and that these differences in policy design are currently making alignment with the emerging national policy framework more difficult for Alberta.