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Michaud said the Alberta unit hasn’t been formed to snoop on people or groups that oppose energy projects such as the oilsands or the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast.

“There has to be violence attached to their activities in order for us to pay attention to them,” he said.

“That being said, in our role of preventing these threats from occurring, it is important that intelligence is collected against the activities of groups before they become violent.”

The RCMP say the unit will almost double the number of police working on counter-terrorism in Alberta, including looking for and investigating foreign terrorism suspects.

Alberta-based Mounties were involved in the investigation that led to the arrest last year of suspected terrorist Sayfildin Tahir Sharif in Edmonton.

Sharif is accused of helping to plan a 2009 suicide bombing attack in Iraq that killed five American soldiers. The U.S. is trying to extradite him to face murder and conspiracy charges.

“We work with our international partners,” Michaud said. “In that case, with the FBI, in mounting a criminal prosecution against the individual for his activities overseas.”

Michaud said teams in other provinces were involved in the Toronto 18 case, in which 11 people were convicted and sent to prison for their role in a plot to bomb the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an eastern Ontario military base.

Alberta has been working for years with the RCMP and the energy industry to better protect critical infrastructure from threats and began developing its own counter-terrorism management plan in 2002.

Under the province’s plan, companies that operate facilities such as oilsands mines, pipelines, petrochemical plants and refineries must have policies to deal with and respond to threats.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers welcomed Wednesday’s announcement.

“Obviously it is important to protect the vital pieces of infrastructure that we have in the province,” association spokesman Travis Davies said from Calgary.

“Whether it is oil and gas, wells, pipes, rail, electricity facilities — these are all critical to Canadian security.”