A high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton just took another step forward.

The Province of Alberta is getting ready to launch a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process this fall for a high-speed rail project connecting downtown Edmonton, Red Deer, and downtown Calgary, with stops serving Edmonton International Airport, Calgary International Airport, and Airdrie.

Alberta plans to select a private-sector proponent by April 2027, with the successful proposal expected to require minimal financial investment from the provincial government, according to a news release from the Province.

“Connecting Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton with high-speed rail would be a generational investment in Alberta’s future. As our province continues to grow, we need to build the infrastructure that keeps people, businesses and our economy moving,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“By working with the federal government, we are taking the next steps toward a project that could strengthen one of Canada’s fastest-growing economic corridors and support Alberta’s growth for decades to come.”

The federal government has also committed to referring the Calgary-Red Deer-Edmonton corridor to its Major Projects Office, and says it will work with Alberta to advance the project once a private proponent has been selected.

The proposed rail line would use new, dedicated passenger tracks and trains travelling at speeds of up to 320 km/h.

According to the province, a trip between downtown Edmonton and downtown Calgary could take about one hour and 45 minutes.

The corridor is home to about 80 per cent of Alberta’s population, and the province says high-speed rail could provide another transportation option while reducing pressure on the QEII Highway.

Alberta’s Passenger Rail Master Plan includes high-speed regional service between Edmonton and Calgary as part of a phased 30-year passenger rail network, which was released on June 5, 2026.

The plan also lays out a 60-year vision for expanding passenger rail across Alberta, potentially stretching from Fort McMurray to the Crowsnest Pass.

The Alberta government is taking steps to address concerns around illegal garbage dumping.

The province will introduce legislation this fall to increase penalties for illegal dumping, with fines ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for individuals, and $100,000 to $1 million for corporations.

The changes would also allow courts to impose jail sentences for illegal dumping, ranging from a minimum of 30 days to six months.

Premier Danielle Smith told reporters Wednesday that illegal dumping of garbage and debris is creating serious problems for landowners and local governments.

"Far too often irresponsible people are dumping their trash on our roadsides, public lands and in rural communities, leaving farmers and municipalities and taxpayers to clean up the mess," she said. "Albertans expect better than that."

The province says the City of Calgary received about 30,000 complaints and nearly 9,000 service requests due to illegal dumping on municipal property last year, with the city issuing 165 tickets and three fines.

CBC News has reached out to the City of Calgary to confirm those numbers.

Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said the changes are meant to address what he said "has become a common problem throughout Alberta."

"I'll be blunt: we see many times people come, often from outside of our rural municipalities, looking for somewhere to dump waste, thinking that no one lives there," he said. "Well, we live there. Rural Albertans do. And we have had enough."

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Farmers in southern Alberta say more people are illegally dumping garbage on their land. As CBC's Jo Horwood reports, despite one landowner catching people in the act, there's little they can do besides clean it up.

More oversight of waste management

The changes would also add more provincial oversight of waste transfer and storage facilities "that represent a higher risk of becoming a community nuisance or worse if managed poorly, Smith said.

That includes requiring "higher risk facilities" that deal with more garbage or store it for longer periods of time to get provincial registration and meet other new requirements.

"If something does occur — terrible fire for instance begins that can't get put out — we have to be able to have more tools at our disposal to be monitoring that along the way," Smith said.

The province says those regulations would apply to about 150 of Alberta's 684 waste transfer and storage sites in Alberta.

Alberta’s economy could shrink by as much as $62 billion annually if the province separates from Canada, as higher trade costs drive away investment and put increased pressure on public finances, according to a new report commissioned by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

The report, authored by University of Calgary economic Trevor Tombe, examines the potential economic implications of separation and finds Alberta is more trade-exposed than any other province, leaving its economy particularly vulnerable to new barriers with Canada and international markets.

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Nearly one in three Alberta workers — about 900,000 people — work in sectors “significantly exposed to disruptions in trade with the rest of Canada and the world,” according to the report. Around 334,000 jobs are tied to exports to other provinces, and more than 450,000 are tied to international exports.

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In Calgary, about 36 per cent of jobs (roughly 360,000) are connected to interprovincial or international trade.

Drawing on the economic effects of Brexit, Tombe estimates separation could increase Alberta’s trade costs by between five and eight per cent. The resulting decline in trade and productivity could reduce Alberta’s GDP by between eight and 13 per cent, shrinking the economy by an estimated $41 billion to $62 billion annually.

“This translates directly into real incomes and wages . . . if you have lower productivity, then living standards fall directly as a result,” Tombe said Tuesday.

For Calgary, the report estimates higher trade costs could translate into between 44,000 and 69,000 fewer jobs than if Alberta remained in Canada.

The report also points to significant risks to investment. Based on the experience of the United Kingdom following Brexit, Tombe estimates Alberta could see as much as $15 billion in investment put at risk in a single year as capital moves to jurisdictions viewed as more stable and predictable.

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Calgary Chamber president and CEO Deborah Yedlin called the findings “sobering.”

“(The report) outlines why Alberta is stronger and its future more prosperous as part of Canada,” Yedlin said at a Tuesday morning press conference.

The report also estimates separation could leave Alberta facing a fiscal shortfall of about $9 billion as government revenues decline and spending obligations increase.

Closing that gap could require significant tax increases or spending reductions, according to the analysis. To remedy this shortfall, Tombe posits it would take a sales tax of about eight per cent on top of the five points inherited from Ottawa, a 10-point increase in the corporate income tax or a cut of about 40 per cent to the federal transfers Alberta individuals and businesses now receive.

Yedlin said Alberta faces legitimate economic challenges and acknowledged policies over the past decade that the Chamber says have constrained the province’s growth.

But she argued separation would only compound challenges at a time when changing global energy markets, supply chains and increased defence spending are creating new opportunities for Alberta.

“We stand on the doorstep of some significant opportunity right now because of the way the world is changing,” Yedlin said. “We can’t score a goal on our own net, and that’s basically what we’d be doing.”

‘An unreliable report’: Wilson

Keith Wilson, a constitutional lawyer and co-lead of the Alberta Transition Council and Let Alberta Decide, criticized the report’s modelling, arguing it relies on “incredible assumptions that are unrealistic in the real world.

“It’s an unreliable report,” Wilson said. “They make these incredibly pessimistic assumptions in order to get numbers that sound scary, and a clear-eyed examination should cause someone to realize that it’s not a reliable report.”

Wilson specifically questioned the assumption separation could increase trade costs by between five and eight per cent.

“It’s a model. So they put in a five to eight per cent increase in trade costs, then they get this $62-billion headline,” Wilson said. “The real question is: Is it true? Is it reasonable to assume that there would be a five to eight per cent increase in trade costs?

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“And what you have to assume to get there is that we would no longer follow the standards we already have in place under the existing laws and arrangements with our markets, and that’s a highly illogical assumption that is in no one’s interests.”

Wilson argued it would be in the economic interests of both Alberta and the rest of Canada to maintain existing trade relationships following separation, pointing to the number of jobs elsewhere in the country that also depend on trade with Alberta.

“Why would someone in Ontario say, ‘well, if the customer is in Alberta, I quit,'” he said “(That) makes no sense at all.”

He also pushed back against arguments that separation would create greater economic uncertainty, saying many supporters of independence view federal policy itself as a source of instability.

Oct. 19 vote ‘will shape the future’ of Alberta

Alongside the report, the Chamber launched an open letter to Albertans, co-signed by Calgary business leaders, arguing that remaining in Canada is “critical to our momentum as a country.”

“The evidence is clear: separation would not solve these challenges. It would make things much worse,” Yedlin said.

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“Separation, or the prolonged threat of it, would significantly compromise our potential to seize the opportunity before us.”

On Oct. 19th, Albertans will vote on whether Alberta should remain in Canada or the provincial government should start the legal process toward a binding vote on separation.

“This vote is one of the most consequential moments in our province’s history,” Yedlin added. “The decision Albertans make will shape the future of this province and the federation for generations to come.”

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A new Calgary cyclotron is expected to more than triple Alberta’s capacity to produce drugs used in PET scans and nearly double capacity for SPECT scans.

The province is putting $64 million over three years toward completing the Calgary Radiopharmaceutical Centre at Foothills Medical Centre. The Alberta Cancer Foundation is contributing another $7 million for specialized equipment and research laboratories.

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Construction is underway, with the facility expected to be operational by 2029. It will be Calgary’s first cyclotron and Alberta’s third, joining two in Edmonton.

“This investment is about more than a new building. It is about creating the infrastructure Alberta needs to diagnose illness earlier, expand access to treatment and deliver better care for the growing population across southern Alberta,” Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange said.

A cyclotron produces radioisotopes, or radioactive atoms, used in medical imaging, therapy and research. Radiopharmaceuticals are specialized medicines used in diagnostic imaging and treatment, including targeted radiation for some cancers.

The province says the centre will support diagnostic imaging and treatment involving cancer, heart disease, neurological conditions and other serious illnesses. Demand for PET scans alone is expected to more than triple by 2040.

Why Calgary production matters

Radiopharmaceuticals are currently produced only in Edmonton, and their limited lifespan makes transportation time critical.

When Alberta first announced the Calgary project in 2021, it said only 25 per cent of the specialized product shipped from Edmonton to Calgary could be used by the time it arrived because the drugs have short half-lives and degrade during transport.

Producing the drugs in Calgary is expected to reduce transportation time and product decay while providing a more reliable supply for southern Alberta.

“This new facility will strengthen Alberta’s health infrastructure and help ensure southern Albertans have reliable access to the diagnostic services they need,” Infrastructure Minister Martin Long said. “By bringing radiopharmaceutical production closer to patients, we are building capacity for the future and supporting timely, high-quality care.”

Alberta said in 2021 that some radiopharmaceuticals planned for development have half-lives of less than 20 minutes and can be used or studied immediately after production.

Having cyclotrons producing medical products in both Calgary and Edmonton is also intended to help maintain Alberta’s supply during regular maintenance shutdowns.

Calgary already has a radiopharmaceutical centre. Alberta said in 2021 that the existing facility needed upgrades to meet existing standards and that the new project would replace it.

The new centre will add Calgary’s first cyclotron, allowing the radioisotopes used in radiopharmaceutical production to be produced locally instead of relying solely on Edmonton.

The centre will also include research laboratories supporting development of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals and future clinical trials.

Earlier project documents identified potential work involving new treatments, therapeutic uses of isotopes, diagnostic probes and radiotracers, as well as research aimed at better understanding the progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Steven Yip, an Alberta Health Services medical oncologist and chair of the Southern Alberta GU Tumour Group, described the proposed cyclotron as an urgent resource for cancer care when the project was announced.

“The future Calgary-based cyclotron is an urgently needed resource for Alberta cancer care,” Yip said. “It will enable cutting-edge, clinically relevant research and it will have a major impact on the diagnosis, staging and treatment of our patients affected by cancer.”

A project five years in the making

Alberta first funded the project in 2021, committing $18.6 million over three years. At the time, the province estimated the full project would cost about $50 million and expected it to be complete in 2024-25, with opening to follow commissioning and certification.

In 2024, Alberta described the project as fully funded by the provincial government and identified a $70-million total investment, including $48.4 million over three years in Budget 2024. Construction was anticipated to begin in 2025, with substantial completion expected in 2027.

The latest announcement puts $64 million in provincial funding over three years toward completing construction, while the Alberta Cancer Foundation is contributing $7 million for specialized equipment and research laboratories.

The province’s releases do not explain how the latest $64-million commitment fits with the $70-million total investment described in 2024.

The project timeline has also shifted. Alberta expected completion in 2024-25 when the facility was announced in 2021, substantial completion in 2027 in its 2024 update, and now says the centre is expected to be operational by 2029.

The earlier dates refer to different project stages, while the latest date refers to when the centre is expected to be operational.

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Who’s responsible for enforcing rules on where campaign signs can be placed and how big they can be is still unclear, with less than a month to go before Alberta's referendum, some municipal leaders say.

Changes to the provincial Election Act in recent years, through Bill 54, have prevented municipalities from passing new bylaws or resolutions about election signs or advertisements. Instead, the provincial government can make regulations establishing rules on ads, including their placement.

The bill leaves Calgary without the authority to regulate referendum advertising, the city says, unless the signs are creating public safety hazards or interfering with public infrastructure.

A video shared online Tuesday appears to show a city worker removing referendum signs from the side of the road. The city later told CBC News that some signs were removed in error and then returned, and the incident will be investigated.

The pro-independence group Let Alberta Decide says the city has not returned its signs, which it believes were placed lawfully.

Harder for municipalities, says councillor

Calgary Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt says the current situation has created "confusion and uncertainty," and makes it harder for municipalities to deal with a recent "increase in vandalism" as the October referendum approaches.

"The combination of those two things, I think it actually shows the value that municipalities can bring to something like this, because nobody knows this municipality better than us," Schmidt said.

"We work on the ground here directly with citizens every day," he said. "By removing that layer of regulation and enforcement to a higher level that maybe has less of that direct contact, then we can see what's happening now where there's less certainty around how things work."

Edmonton amended its Public Spaces Bylaw in March to remove provisions specifically related to election signs and advertising after the province’s changes to the Election Act. The bylaw still contains general provisions about signs and the use of public spaces.

When asked how provincial rules around election signs were now being enforced, the justice minister's office said Elections Alberta is responsible for administering provincial elections and referendums.

But when Elections Alberta was contacted, it said it only has jurisdiction over the content of election signs and advertisements, not over sign placement, size or damage. It said any questions about election size and placement should instead be directed to the Alberta government.

The justice minister's office declined to provide a statement, but officials told CBC News there are rules in place for the size and placement of election signs on provincial highways.

WATCH | Flag duels heat up in Alberta as referendum nears:

Less than a month before the Alberta referendum, the choice of flag Albertans choose to fly has become increasingly political, with those displaying the provincial flag increasingly likely to support independence from Canada.

Alberta Municipalities president Dylan Bressey argued the lack of regulation is creating confusion for municipal councils and mayors who don't know what the rules currently are.

“It really is the wild west right now in many communities, just because there’s no enforcement authority over these signs," said Bressey.

“It’s yet another thing that municipalities have to figure out how to navigate while their authority is being eroded.”

Bressey said it’s reasonable for a municipality to regulate how far campaign signs can be from the road or how many can be in one given area.

He added that the current enforcement mechanisms surrounding provincial campaign signs are unclear, and that Elections Alberta may be to closely monitor the issue.

Several municipalities have posted online to inform their residents they don’t have an election sign bylaw and to point them toward the provincial rules.

The City of Camrose residents it has less authority than in the past around campaign signs; the Town of Okotoks said it the province’s new legislation as meaning it can’t regulate referendum advertising; Strathcona County said provincial legislation to regulate referendum signs; and Sturgeon County said it campaign signs ahead of the vote.

Both the municipalities of Stony Plain and Spruce Grove also pointed to Elections Alberta as being responsible for ensuring election signs are placed according to provincial requirements.

Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams says the province is "essentially saying that other governments need to stay in their lane, but they want to usurp control over what's happening in other areas."

She said municipalities are closer to local issues, know their communities, and can respond to problems much more effectively than the provincial government can.

"One of the things we do see in election campaigns is sometimes people removing signs belonging to somebody they disagree with, and that is a violation of a provincial election law," Williams said.

And, she said, "It makes sense for the provincial government, as they always have, to have authority over that sort of thing."

But because public property falls under municipal jurisdiction, she argues they should have a say in how signs are placed or handled.

"I think a collaborative, co-operative approach to this could have produced something that would be beneficial for everyone, but unfortunately that wasn't the route that was taken," Williams said.

Albertans head to the polls on Oct. 19 to vote in the referendum.