CALGARY, AB, June 24, 2026 /CNW/ - Let Alberta Decide is responding to today's Calgary Chamber of Commerce news release by saying the Chamber has focused on fear while ignoring the larger economic reality: Alberta's economy has been held back for more than a decade by federal policies that have driven away investment, constrained resource development, and limited Alberta's potential.

Keith Wilson, K.C., co-lead of Let Alberta Decide, said the Chamber's release misses the central issue.

"The Chamber is measuring fear, not opportunity," said Wilson. "It is warning Albertans about hypothetical uncertainty from independence while ignoring the real uncertainty Alberta businesses have lived with under Ottawa. The greatest threat to Alberta's economy is not Albertans having a democratic vote on their future. The greatest threat is allowing Ottawa to keep blocking, capping, taxing, delaying, and politicizing the industries that built this province."

Wilson said Alberta remains one of Canada's strongest economies despite federal policies that have discouraged investment in energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and resource development.

"Alberta's farmland is not moving. Alberta's oil and gas reserves are not moving. Our skilled trades, engineers, entrepreneurs, service companies, infrastructure, and young workforce are here," Wilson said. "Alberta is not a branch office economy. Alberta is a producing economy."

Let Alberta Decide says the Chamber's release also ignores the massive capital flight Canada has experienced under the current federal policy environment, with recent economic analysis reporting that more than $1 trillion in investment left Canada between 2015 and 2024.

"Businesses do not leave because a people debate their future," Wilson said. "Investment leaves when governments make the rules unpredictable — and Ottawa has done that to Alberta for more than a decade. That capital did not leave Canada because Albertans were discussing independence. It left under the current federal system."

Wilson said independence would give Alberta authority over resource regulation, taxation, immigration policy, infrastructure approvals, trade policy, pipeline approvals, and market access.

"Albertans should be making the decisions that shape Alberta's economy," Wilson said. "Those decisions determine whether projects get built, whether jobs are created, and whether young Albertans can build their futures here at home."

Wilson rejected the Chamber's reliance on Brexit as a comparison.

"Brexit is the wrong analogy," Wilson said. "The UK moved away from its largest market. Alberta independence would allow Alberta to negotiate directly with our largest and most important market—the United States—without Ottawa sacrificing Alberta's interests to protect Central Canadian priorities."

Let Alberta Decide noted that the Chamber's survey was not a representative poll of Albertans or Alberta businesses. It was a survey of Chamber members who chose to respond. Even then, the Chamber's numbers show that a majority of respondents did not say they would relocate if Albertans voted to begin the independence process.

"If the Chamber wants its poll treated as evidence, it should release the evidence," Wilson said. "Albertans deserve to see the questions, sample size, response rate, and methodology."

"Alberta has the resources, institutions, workforce, and economic capacity to be a successful independent country," Wilson said.

SOURCE Let Alberta Decide