Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is visiting Alberta, days after a separatist movement in the western province faced a major legal setback in its push for a referendum on the issue.

Carney’s visit on Friday was officially to unveil a new agreement laying the groundwork for a crude oil pipeline alongside the province’s premier, Danielle Smith.

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However, the simmering secessionist movement was set to loom large over the trip.

Carney and his Liberal party have pushed for a united Canadian front as he grapples with US tariffs and tensions with US President Donald Trump.

Leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project, one of the groups spearheading the separatist movement, have sought to capitalise on regional discontent with consecutive Liberal party leadership, arguing that Ottawa has over-regulated the province’s lucrative oil and gas industry.

Earlier this year, members of the group met with members of the US Department of State. After which, they held positive meetings during which they discussed the logistics of a possible secession.

On Wednesday, supporters faced a major setback, with a provincial court ruling in favour of a First Nations bid to halt a referendum on secession.

Justice Shaina Leonard ruled ‌that the province’s chief electoral officer was wrong to allow separatists to collect signatures requesting a referendum. Leonard maintained that the process should have triggered a consultation with Indigenous peoples whose rights might be violated by Alberta’s secession from Canada.

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That came after another separatist group, Stay Free Alberta, said it delivered a petition to Elections Alberta with more than 300,000 signatures. If approved, the signatures would be enough to trigger a referendum.

“Alberta independence would fundamentally contravene” the land treaties Indigenous peoples signed with Canada, Leonard said.

Premier Smith has called the decision “incorrect in law” and said her government would appeal.

While not personally supporting Alberta’s secession, Smith has walked a careful line with supporters of the movement. That has involved overseeing legislation making it easier to trigger a referendum, including lowering the number of signatures required.

Polls have regularly shown that about a third of Alberta’s population supports secession.

The preliminary pipeline agreement released on Friday represented a compromise between Carney’s Liberals, who have championed more environmental regulations, and Smith, a populist leader who has long pushed for the project.

Before the meeting, Carney stressed that the deal had “multiple preconditions”. Those included more stringent industrial carbon taxing and the creation of a new carbon capture project.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Adrienne Davidson, a political science professor at McMaster University in Ontario, said Carney will also walk a fine line on the separatist issue during the trip.

“It could ⁠be dangerous for Carney if he steps into the conversation about Alberta and tries to dismiss the sovereignty idea,” Davidson said.

“It could be seen as Ottawa just trying to run the show and could absolutely backfire for him.”