Alberta's Bill C-12: A Perfectly Constitutional Answer To BC's Trans Mountain Intransigence?

The prevailing wisdom appears to be that Alberta's recently-announced Bill C-12¹ is a constitutional dead duck. The Bill, titled the Preserving Canada's Economic Prosperity Act, would authorize the province's Minister of Energy to restrict the flow of its oil and gas exports using licencing requirements. Alberta's NDP makes no secret that the legislation responds to "[r]oadblocks put in place by the British Columbia government" to building new pipeline capacity. B.C.'s Attorney General, David Eby, has called the legislation a "bluff," vowing to block its implementation in court. Andrew Coyne, writing in the National Post, calls it a "flagrantly unconstitutional exercise." A Globe and Mail staff editorial finds "more evidence that Canada's provincial premiers will upend any and all laws in order to score political points."