EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith on Tuesday announced that, in response to what she described as "ongoing federal disrespect," the Government of Alberta would henceforth respond to all communications from Ottawa by carrier pigeon, beginning immediately.

The decision, the Premier said, reflected the province's growing dissatisfaction with the tone, content, and timing of federal correspondence — and was intended to "restore Alberta's historic relationship with the rest of the country," a relationship she dated to "before the postal service made things worse."

"We are not going to be lectured by Ottawa," the Premier said, at a press conference held next to a pigeon coop hastily assembled on the legislature lawn. "We will respond. We will respond clearly. We just will not be using their preferred medium."

Asked whether the carrier pigeon system would be used for all federal communication, or only ceremonial correspondence, the Premier said it would depend on "the seriousness of the federal letter," which she would determine by reading it, which she would then decline to publicly acknowledge having done.

The province's existing federal-affairs office, asked whether it had been consulted on the change, said it had learned of the policy from this press conference. Several staff members reportedly inquired about the operational details of the pigeon system and were directed to "a man on staff who used to keep birds."

Pressed on the cost, training, biosecurity, and reliability of the new communication channel, the Premier said the cost would be "negligible" relative to "the cost of having a federal relationship at all," a calculation she did not show. The pigeons themselves, the Premier confirmed, were being sourced "from Alberta breeders, exclusively," a sentence that was met, in the room, by a long silence followed by a follow-up question about whether the birds had been consulted.

The federal government, asked for a response, said it had not yet received one, and intended to continue corresponding by the methods currently used by sovereign states. The Premier's office described this response as "exactly the problem."