While an Alberta separatist group confirms it had meetings with U.S. officials over the past year, its leaders won’t say which members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration they have spoken with directly.
“We’re meeting at a very high level,” Alberta Prosperity Project legal counsel Jeffrey Rath said in an interview with CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday.
When asked by host Vassy Kapelos whether those officials would be recognizable to Canadians, Rath said “probably,” but would not confirm whether Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, was among them.
Rath did say, however, that Trump has not been part of those meetings.
“We have an agreement with the people that we’re meeting with that we’re not disclosing the identities of the people that we’re meeting with,” Rath said.
Rath’s comments come after The Financial Times reported Thursday that the sovereigntist group was conducting a feasibility study with Trump officials and other financial institutions regarding a potential $500-billion credit facility in the event of a successful referendum on Alberta independence.
Rath later confirmed the group has met with U.S. State Department officials, but said “no agreements” were being made with the U.S and dismissed the Financial Times’ report as “fake news.”
The report dominated the first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa on Thursday, with B.C. Premier David Eby calling the group’s actions “treason.”
That same day, a senior U.S. State Department official would not confirm any request for $500 billion, but told CTV News on background that “the department regularly meets with civil society groups.”
“As is typical in routine meetings such as these, no commitments were made,” the official added.
The White House provided a similar comment to CTV News, saying the administration regularly meets with civil society groups and that no commitments were conveyed.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, did not directly answer when asked by reporters Thursday whether he believed the recent developments amounted to foreign interference by the United States.
“I would expect the U.S. administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” Carney said. “I’m always clear my conversation with President Trump to that effect, and then move on to what we can do together.”
Rath defends meetings with U.S. officials
Speaking to Kapelos, Rath pushed back against the characterization of his group’s meeting with U.S. officials, saying they are “not seeking money from the United States.”
“We’re conducting a feasibility study on the availability of a sufficient credit facility to get Alberta over the hump in the hypothetical eventuality that Ottawa is going to play hardball and try to cut off our money once Alberta declares itself independent from Canada,” Rath said.
Pressed by Kapelos on how some Canadians may find those actions problematic, Rath acknowledged he understands it could be “upsetting” to “people in Ontario and Quebec,” but emphasized that “Albertans are done.”
“Quite frankly, the Trump administration shows Albertans far more respect than are shown to Albertans by the government in Ottawa,” Rath later added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, recently weighed in on the separatist movement and called Alberta a “natural partner for the U.S.”
He also said the western province should be allowed to expand oil shipments through the United States.
Rath says those comments show that his group’s work to exchange “information with senior officials in the U.S. State Department over the aspirations of Albertans for independence” are “paying dividends.”
‘Nobody’s independent in the modern world’
The meetings between the Alberta Prosperity Project and U.S. officials come as trade relations between Canada and the U.S. remain strained, and as separatists in Alberta are seeking to collect 178,000 signatures with the goal of triggering a referendum on the province’s independence.
Asked whether seeking credit, as Rath has described, would increase reliance on the U.S., Rath argued that the “entire world runs on credit” and “nobody is independent in the modern world.”
Rath also criticized Canada’s recent trade agreement with China, calling that country “an enemy.”
Pressed by Kapelos on whether the group’s pitch for separation will give the province full freedom, Rath insisted “there’s no such thing as true independence.”
“All of this phony ‘we hate the Americans, Canadians should be afraid of Americans, Alberta must be completely independent from the United States of America.’ We don’t live in a vacuum,” Rath said.
You can watch Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.
With files from CTV News’ Brennan MacDonald, Mike Le Couteur and Abigail Bimman
