2025 Federal Election
Carney’s Cap on Alberta Energy Costing Canada Billions
“It’s shocking that Carney can sit down with Premier Danielle Smith, hear exactly why he should stop hamstringing our energy sector and he responds by doubling down on the damaging policy.”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the Carney government to remove its cap from Alberta’s oil and gas sector.
“Taxpayers are already losing out on billions of dollars in savings per year because Canada doesn’t have a fully functioning pipeline network, thanks to Ottawa hitting Alberta with laws such as Bill C-69,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director for the CTF. “Choking Alberta’s energy sector right when we need to become more energy independent in the middle of a tariff war with the United States is the wrong way to go.”
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minister of the environment, Terry Duguid, said the Ottawa-imposed cap on Alberta’s oil and gas will remain in place under Carney.
“We want that energy – what we don’t want is that pollution,” Duguid said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently issued a report showing the costs of Ottawa’s cap on Canadian energy.
The PBO report shows the cap will cost the Canadian economy $20.5 billion and slash more than 40,000 Canadian jobs.
- “PBO estimates that the required reduction in upstream oil and gas sector production levels will lower real gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada by 0.39 per cent in 2032 and reduce nominal GDP by $20.5 billion. PBO estimates that achieving the legal upper bound will reduce economy-wide employment in Canada by 40,300 jobs and full-time equivalents by 54,400 in 2032.” – Impact Assessment of the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap.
“The Carney government’s cap on Alberta’s oil and gas sector will cost Canada billions of dollars and slash tens of thousands of jobs – it’s exactly the opposite of what Canada needs,” said Sims. “It’s shocking that Carney can sit down with Premier Danielle Smith, hear exactly why he should stop hamstringing our energy sector and he responds by doubling down on the damaging policy.”
Walk this way! …singing, hey diddle diddle with the NDP in the middle…
Rumours are bouncing around that a number of NDP MPs are looking at potentially crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party of Canada and give Mark Carney the majority he is looking for. The final count for the Liberal Party was that they finished with 169 seats, a mere three seats short of the number needed to claim majority and not have to work with other parties to create a workable mandate.
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From the NDP perspective, I sort of get it. After all, Singh lost in his own riding, the party no longer enjoys Official Party Status and all the accoutrements that come along with this (the biggest one being money), and the party is rumoured to be bankrupt. From an individual’s perspective, crossing the floor gives them four years of employment (beyond that may be more murky as many will say “I didn’t vote for that”), and if you are amongst the first to cross, your bargaining position (cabinet position) can enhance your political lot in life fairly materially. If this were to occur it will happen quickly as the law of diminishing returns happens exponentially faster should you be the fourth to cross the line (maybe the Lizzy will join the race!)
From the Liberal perspective, I’m not as convinced the benefits are as transparent, from a nation building perspective. Sure, you get the majority (and thus mandate) you wish to pursue, but you truly would be thumbing your nose at Canada when you know that many NDP votes metaphorically crossed the floor to vote during the election (likely without the foresight that it would result in the death of their party), and that the country is actually pretty evenly split between the Liberals and Conservatives. Language like “now is the time for Canada to unite” and “we need a strong mandate to make Canada strong, and now we have it” could be thrown around, but that can create real fractures should that occur.
Personally, I am hoping that Prime Minister Carney says no to any floor crossers, and works to bridge the divides that are significant within this country. There is no reason that Canada cannot be one of the greatest countries, other than getting in the way of ourselves. Now is the time for olive branches, not cactus areoles.
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From William’s Substack
William Lacey
I put a lot of personal energy into this election, trying to understand why it was that Canadians so wholeheartedly endorsed Mark Carney as their new leader, despite the fact that it was the same party who caused irreparable economic harm to the economy, and he has a similar philosophical outlook to the core outlook of the party. I truly believe that we have moved to a phase in our electoral process where, until something breaks, left leaning ideology will trump the day (pun intended).
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Coming out of this election I have three questions.
1. What of Pierre Poilievre? The question for Conservatives is whether the wolves feed on the carcass of Poilievre (in my opinion the worst enemy of a Conservative is a Conservative) and initiate the hunt for a new leader (if they do, I believe the future should be led by a woman – Melissa Lantsman or possibly Caroline Mulroney), or does Poilievre move to Alberta and run for a “safe” seat to get back into the House of Commons, change his tone, and show people he too can be Prime Ministerial? His concession speech gives clues to this.
2. What of Mark Carney? Maybe (hopefully) Carney will see the light and try to bring the nation together, as there is an obvious east-west split in the country in terms of politics. Time will tell, and minority governments need to be cautious. Will we have a Supply and Confidence 2.0 or will we see olive branches extended?
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3. What of the House of Commons? As I have mentioned previously, there has been discussion that the House of Commons may not sit until after the summer break, meaning that the House of Commons really will not have conducted any business in almost a year by the time it reconveens. If indeed “we are in the worst crisis of our lives” as Prime Minister Carney campaigned on, then should we not have the House of Commons sit through the summer? After all, the summer break usually is for politicians to go back to their ridings and connect with their constituents, but if an election campaign doesn’t constitute connecting, what does?
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Regardless, as the election is behind us, we now need to see what comes. I will try to be hopeful, but remain cautious. May Canada have better days ahead.
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