Carney must ‘pick a lane’ on climate, energy policies, advocates say

Throughout the election campaign, Carney signalled an openness to building more pipelines in Canada and promised to cut approval times to get projects built faster.

Climate activists and energy leaders say Prime Minister Mark Carney will need to make some hard choices on whether to bolster the country’s oil and gas sector as means of achieving economic stability.

Throughout the election campaign, Carney signalled an openness to building more pipelines in Canada and promised to cut approval times to get projects built faster. He also acknowledged during the English leaders’ debate that having western Canadian oil flow through the United States to Ontario and Quebec presents a national security threat.

But he also has said he wants to keep Canada’s emissions cap on oil and gas production in place, and to strengthen the industrial carbon price — policies the oil and gas sector has called on him to scrap.

Carney also campaigned on making Canada a “world leader” in carbon capture and introducing investment tax credits to support clean energy and technology.

While Carney said before the campaign he would keep the emissions cap in place, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said the prime minister told her behind closed doors that he wasn’t in favour of hard caps.

“We’ve heard Mr. Carney, in particular during the election campaign, adopt an ‘all of the above’ approach to energy and refusing to pick a lane between a cleaner, safer, renewable powered future and doubling down on the volatile fossil fuel status quo,” said Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network.

“I think that in 2025 we don’t have the luxury of not picking a lane, both from an environmental side of things but also from an economic side of things.”

And Carney doesn’t have the luxury of time either, said Adam Waterous, chairman of oil and gas producer Strathcona Resources.