PRESIDENT'S UPDATE

AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION WITH PREMIER DANIELLE SMITH

Tuesday, October 27  ·  5:00 to 7:00 PM  ·  Royal Glenora Club, Edmonton

Registration opened yesterday to members only, and we are already more than 50% sold in a single day. If you have not seen the invitation, check your inbox — and check your junk folder while you are there.

This is not a speech. It is a fireside chat, deliberately kept small, so that it can be a genuine two-way conversation with the Premier. You will have the chance to put your question directly to her and get an answer in the room, and it gives us the ability to follow up afterward on the issues that matter most to you. That is what our members tell us they value: not a speaker on a distant stage, but someone you can shake hands with.

Tickets are limited to four per member so that the room holds a real range of industries and sectors. Seats will only open to non-members once members have had their chance, and on current pace we do not expect many to be left.

Not a member yet?
This is not a room you want to hear about afterward. Reach out today and we will hold seats for you while we process your membership.
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Sponsorship opportunities for the evening are also member-exclusive. Reply and we will send the details.

A NEW LOOK AT MEMBERSHIP — AND AT INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP

We have refreshed our membership page and revamped the Industry Partner program. If partnership is something you have looked at before and set aside, this is a good moment to revisit it. As we build out our policy priorities under the new strategic plan, Industry Partners will help steer that work — which makes this a genuinely different proposition than it was a year ago. Have a conversation with us before those priorities are set rather than after.

Link:  Membership and Industry Partnership

THE POLITICAL PICTURE, AND WHY WE ARE BUILDING POLICY NOW

A correction to what we wrote last week. We said the BC NDP was looking at a favourable map, with the right-of-centre vote splitting three ways. One week of polling has undone that. Liaison Strategies had the NDP up 41 to 36 on September 23; yesterday the same firm had the BC Conservatives at 40 and the NDP at 39. Angus Reid has the Conservatives further ahead still, at 43 to 35, and found two-thirds of respondents — including half of NDP voters — saying Eby put his own interests ahead of the province's in calling the election. CentreBC and OneBC are polling at 4% and 3%, too low to be splitting much of anything.

The BC vote on October 24 now looks genuinely competitive, which matters to Alberta business because British Columbia is the province our pipelines cross and the coast our energy reaches. Nobody should be assuming a result, in either direction.

Closer to home, Janet Brown's polling of 1,200 Albertans between September 8 and 21 has the UCP and NDP tied at 41% each — the UCP down eight points since April, the NDP up five, with a ten-point drop for the UCP in Calgary. On the referendum question, 72% would vote to remain, with 23% supporting a binding separation vote. Ipsos found a similar split. Half of Albertans remain undecided on the nine non-separation questions, and 61% of UCP voters say they do not yet know how they will vote on them.

Here is why that matters for us. When politics is this fluid, platforms get written quickly and by whoever shows up with something ready. Business drives this economy, and our positions should be in front of every party as they build theirs — not delivered after the fact as commentary. That is the work our policy committees are about to begin, drawing on the member survey, the listening tour, and what we are hearing from you every week. If you want your issue in that mix, now is the time to say so.

WHERE I'LL BE

Two Calgary dates back to back. I am speaking at the We Unify conference on Sunday, October 4, and at the Max Bell Foundation Policy Exchange 2026 on Monday, October 5. If you are at either, come and find me — these conversations are how the listening tour keeps going. And I am on Vassy Kapelos' Power Play Front Bench every Wednesday between 3 and 4 p.m. MST, with past episodes online if you miss it live.

Link:  Power Play — full episodes

— Erika Barootes, President

GOVERNMENT ACTIONS

1.  High-speed rail moves from plan to procurement

What happened:  On Monday, Alberta and Ottawa announced they are advancing high-speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton. The province will launch a formal Request for Proposal this fall for a downtown Calgary–Red Deer–downtown Edmonton line that also serves both major airports and Airdrie, with a proponent to be selected by April 2027. Ottawa committed to refer the corridor to the federal Major Projects Office as a transformative strategy and to work with Alberta once a proponent is chosen, including on financing options.

What it means for your business:  This is the largest procurement Alberta has put in front of the private sector in a long time, and the terms are unusual: the province expects the winning proposal to involve minimal provincial financial investment. That shifts risk and reward onto the proponent and its supply chain. A greenfield 320 km/h corridor would put downtown Edmonton within one hour and forty-five minutes of downtown Calgary, along a corridor holding about 80% of Alberta's population. If you are in construction, engineering, materials, logistics, land, or professional services, the RFP is the document to watch this fall — and the subcontracting decisions that follow will be made long before a train runs.

What AEG is doing:  Pressing for procurement terms that give Alberta firms a real path into the supply chain rather than a subcontracting afterthought, and watching how the federal Major Projects Office referral interacts with provincial timelines.

Link:  Alberta and Canada advance high-speed rail plan

Link:  Passenger Rail Master Plan and the 30-year network

2.  Level Up: $1.1 million to help Alberta businesses sell abroad

What happened:  The province launched Level Up last week, a provincewide export program delivered with Calgary Economic Development, building on the Trade Accelerator Program with specialized training, coaching and market-specific knowledge. Since June 2025 the province has committed $3.8 million across both programs, targeting more than 1,500 businesses over five years.

What it means for your business:  If tariffs have made reliance on a single market uncomfortable, this is the province paying for the expertise to reduce it. More than 660 Alberta companies have been through the Trade Accelerator Program since 2018, securing over 200 trade deals across 50 markets. Look at it alongside the Alberta Export Expansion Program and the trade missions rather than one at a time.

What AEG is doing:  Watching how quickly Level Up reaches businesses outside Calgary, and raising it if the answer is not quickly enough.

Link:  Level Up program

3.  Tariff support: the offer still stands

What happened:  The Regional Tariff Response Initiative, delivered here by PrairiesCan, offers up to $3 million per business in non-repayable contributions — up to $2 million in liquidity assistance and up to $1 million for a pivot project. Intake runs to December 31, 2028, or until the money is committed, which is the more likely constraint.

What it means for your business:  You need to be incorporated, operating in the Prairies, with at least $1 million in annual revenue in one of your last two fiscal years, and viable before the tariffs hit. Then any one of three tests qualifies you: you operate in a sector hit by Section 232 or Section 338 tariffs, and indirect exposure counts, so supply chain partners of affected exporters qualify on this alone; or at least 25% of your revenue comes from goods ultimately exported to the U.S.; or you can demonstrate significant input cost increases, supply chain disruption, or lost revenue or customers. Manufacturing, petrochemical and chemical, agrifood, and lumber and forestry are the likeliest fits, and there is a food security stream for value-added production.

What AEG is doing:  Our offer from last week is still open: if enough members want it, we will arrange a session with PrairiesCan so you can ask your questions directly instead of working it out from program pages. Reply and tell us you are interested. Alberta's tariff input portal also remains open, and product-specific submissions with HS codes carry far more weight than general statements of concern.

Link:  Regional Tariff Response Initiative — eligibility and how to apply

Link:  Alberta's tariff resource hub and input portal

CLOSING THE LOOP

What we heard from members:  Tariff exposure, direct and indirect. Red tape — permitting timelines, duplicated reporting, and approvals that stall projects already financed and ready to go. And increasingly, labour: shortages across the board, and skilled trades in particular, raised now in conversations that started out about something else entirely.

What we asked for:  Clearer, faster guidance on federal tariff support and who actually qualifies.

What came back:  PrairiesCan briefed the business community, including a meeting with our President. The eligibility tests above came out of that briefing, and the session offer is on the table if members want it.

Still open:  Red tape. We have not made a specific ask yet, and we will not make a vague one. The policy committees exist to turn what we are hearing into asks with a number and an address attached. If permitting or reporting is costing you real money, tell us what and how much.

On our radar:  Labour, and its collision with the immigration questions on the October 19 ballot. Whatever Albertans decide, the result shapes the pool members will be recruiting from for years — and the businesses telling us they cannot find welders, electricians and machinists today are the ones it lands on hardest. Polling suggests 63% of Albertans agree the province benefits from immigration, but half of Albertans remain undecided on the nine non-separation questions, which means this is being decided by people who have not yet worked out what they think. We are building a position on what Alberta's labour needs actually require, and we need your numbers to build it on: vacancies, time to fill, wage pressure, and the jobs you have stopped trying to fill.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

▸  What separation would cost, according to the province's own commissioned report

With the referendum three weeks out, this is the document to point people at. The University of Calgary's School of Public Policy analysis, commissioned by the Government of Alberta and written by an independent panel, models a smooth separation and a difficult one. Establishing a new country would cost between $50 billion and $170 billion in the first five years either way. Under the difficult scenario it projects an economy more than 16% smaller after 20 years, employment close to 5% lower, and an ongoing annual deficit above $30 billion. Under the smooth scenario there are modest long-term gains, but not for two decades. The school has been explicit that the report neither advocates for nor opposes separation.

Why it's useful:  It was commissioned by the province rather than by either campaign, which makes it the rare document both sides have to engage with.

Link:  Coverage of the report and its findings

▸  There is a federal tool that tells you which supports you qualify for

The Canada Strong business support finder works as a calculator: answer a few questions and it returns the programs you are eligible for. It covers the supports members ask about most — BDC financing, EDC trade support, and Service Canada's Work-Sharing program, which lets you cut hours across a team instead of laying people off, with EI topping up the difference.

Why it's useful:  Ten minutes, and it is the fastest way to find out whether you are leaving money on the table.

Link:  Find support for your business

ON THE CALENDAR

Oct 1   Target date for the West Coast pipeline proposal to be designated a project of national interest.

Oct 2   Committee on Internal Trade ministers meet to check progress on mutual recognition and labour mobility.

Oct 4   Erika Barootes speaks at the We Unify conference, Calgary.

Oct 5   Erika Barootes speaks at the Max Bell Foundation Policy Exchange 2026, Calgary.

Oct 5–6   Intelligent Warehouse Program, Edmonton — two-day intensive for warehouse leaders. Calgary runs October 19–20.

Link:  Programs and events

Oct 19   Alberta referendum.

Oct 24   British Columbia general election.

Oct 27   An Intimate Conversation with Premier Danielle Smith — 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Royal Glenora Club, Edmonton. Members only, more than 50% sold.

Wednesdays   Erika Barootes on CTV's Power Play Front Bench with Vassy Kapelos, 3–4 p.m. MST.

Link:  Watch past episodes

Ongoing   Alberta's tariff input portal is open. Product-specific submissions with HS codes carry the most weight.

Link:  Share your input

To Dec 31, 2028   RTRI intake is open, or until the funding is committed. Apply early rather than late.

Link:  How to apply

TIP OF THE WEEK

STAY CONNECTED

Have news, an event, or a policy issue we should be watching? Send it to us — this brief is better when it comes from you. Every edition is posted to our website, so you never have to hunt through your inbox for the one with the deadline in it.

Link:  Member newsletter archive

Erika Barootes  ·  President, Alberta Enterprise Group
Sent from president@albertaenterprisegroup.com  ·  albertaenterprisegroup.com
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