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(Government of Alberta)
Provincial Politics

Alberta Next panel announced with legislature members, academics and business leaders

Jun 24, 2025 | 3:05 PM

Premier Danielle Smith says she’ll be spending the summer touring the province with business leaders, backbenchers and an academic to find ways to protect Alberta from what she calls federal mistreatment and overreach.

She says Ottawa is to blame for decades of lost investment and resource revenue and that Alberta can’t be held back any longer.

The premier is to lead the Alberta Next panel, which also includes three United Conservative Party legislature members, Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, a retired judge and a physician.

The 13-member panel includes the following members:

  • Honourable Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas of Alberta
  • Brandon Lunty, MLA for Leduc-Beaumont
  • Glenn van Dijken, MLA for Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock
  • Tara Sawyer, MLA-elect for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills
  • Bruce McDonald, former justice, Court of Appeal of Alberta
  • Trevor Tombe, director of fiscal and economic policy, the University of Calgary School of Public Policy
  • Adam Legge, president, Business Council of Alberta
  • Andrew Judson, vice chairman (prairies), Fraser Institute
  • Sumita Anand, vice president, Above and Beyond Care Services
  • Melody Garner-Skiba, business and agricultural advocate
  • Grant Fagerheim, president and CEO, Whitecap Resources Inc.
  • Dr. Akin Osakuade, physician and section chief, Didsbury Hospital
  • Dr. Benny Xu, community health expert
  • Michael Binnion, president, Questerre Energy

Smith says following a summer of town halls across the province, the panel is to recommend ideas and policy proposals that would be put to Albertans in a referendum next year.

Smith has said a referendum on Alberta separation could happen, though she wouldn’t initiate one herself.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says the premier is wasting time and money by rehashing former premier Jason Kenney’s Fair Deal panel, which toured the province six years ago in search of ways Alberta could gain leverage over Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2025.

With files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton.

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