Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has sounded an optimistic tone of co-operation since Prime Minister Mark Carney came to power.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

There isn’t going to be a big Alberta-Ottawa agreement on energy and the environment by the Grey Cup. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she expects the deal done by then. Don’t hold your breath.

The idea that Alberta and Ottawa could reset relations with such an agreement is still alive, for now. It’s all related to what Ms. Smith has termed the “grand bargain” for an oil pipeline.

But Ms. Smith has also set a timer. She said she expects to see a memorandum of understanding on oil and gas and environmental regulation worked out with Ottawa by the time of the Canadian Football League’s championship game. That’s Sunday.

That timeline – for a meeting of the minds on the beefs that have for so long created a gulf between Alberta’s United Conservative government and Liberals in Ottawa – is wildly........

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