Quebec's Parti Quebecois swept the Coalition Avenir Quebec from office this week, and Alberta independence advocates say the result strengthens their cause before Albertans vote on separation later this month.
Conservative MP Dane Lloyd says the province's resources cannot be promised to a foreign government, as Albertans prepare to vote on a separation referendum question.
The funding announcement comes just days before Ottawa's Thursday deadline to decide whether a proposed pipeline from Alberta to B.C.'s south coast qualifies as a project of national interest.
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce released business-backed research and an open letter urging Alberta to stay in Confederation ahead of a provincial referendum on separation.
Premier Danielle Smith choked up while defending Alberta's place in Canada at a virtual forum co-hosted by Preston Manning and Gordon Campbell, days before the province's referendum on separation.
The vote caps years of western alienation politics, from the 1980 National Energy Program to competing citizen petitions that collided in the courts this year.
Organizers behind Alberta's separation movement say a loss at the ballot box won't stop their campaign, even as Premier Danielle Smith insists a vote to stay would settle the matter.