Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney was one of the most encouraging meetings she’s had with the federal government in a long time.

At a press conference on Thursday, Smith said at her Wednesday meeting with the prime minister, he provided assurances that movement is being made to address what she has called “nine bad laws” including repealing Bill C-69 dubbed the no more pipelines bill, scrapping the emissions cap, lifting the tanker ban and abandoning the net-zero car mandate.

Smith said they were “making great progress” to address the issues and that she believes her timeline for the federal government to address the demands — which was six months from the time the new prime minister was elected — will be met.

“Everybody is looking towards trying to find what I call a ‘grand bargain’ how we can improve the investment climate and get some of these projects built,” Smith said.

“We’re moving in that direction, and we only hope to be able to work on a couple of areas where we might have a little bit of a different perspective that we’re working through.”

Smith took to X on Thursday morning to post about her “exceptionally productive” meeting with the prime minister, saying Albertans are finally being heard.

If all continues to go well, Smith said she expects there could be an announcement before the end of year.

“I found more common ground with the prime minister when I met with him yesterday than I have with any meeting with the prime minister, so I’m going to continue to work through to get our issues addressed,” Smith said.

In a post on X, Carney said he and Smith are “focused on getting things built” in the province.

Late yesterday, I had an exceptionally productive meeting with Prime Minster @MarkJCarney.

Although we still have some details to work out over the coming weeks, I am more optimistic than ever that the concerns of Albertans are FINALLY BEING HEARD and I look forward to reaching… pic.twitter.com/pAS64uR79Z

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) September 11, 2025

Carney announced on Thursday a list of five proposed projects that are being considered for fast-tracking, however, no Alberta project is currently on the list.

Smith said at the Alberta Industrial Heartland Association conference on Thursday morning that the list is a starting point and said the prime minister intends to add a Round 2 of projects to the list by Nov. 16. She repeated her own desire for a bitumen pipeline and pointed to Carney, who she says wants a carbon capture project.

One of the key components Carney said he’d like to see for a pipeline project to move forward is private investment. Smith said companies will not be willing to invest if they’re facing emissions caps, tanker bans or net zero power regulations — which are among her “nine bad laws” she wants addressed.

“Success is having enough confidence in the private sector that they step forward to build it if they can do more efficiently, do it faster, and they have the relationships, not only with the producers, but also, at the end, with the with the market,” Smith said.

She added she’s confident if the underlying conditions to improve the investment climate are addressed, a private sector-proposed project will emerge.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said Smith has never searched for common ground and has “always preferred the fight to win.”

He pointed to a video the premier put out a few weeks ago where she laid out issues she wanted address, which Nenshi said he doesn’t disagree with.

“She got zero of her nine things, and yet, now she’s super happy because she’s realized that her combative fighting posture has hurt Alberta, and it’s hurt the Alberta economy. So I’m happy to see she’s smiling again, but I’d much rather see her doing the work,” Nenshi said.

ctran@postmedia.com