From 'absolutely critical' to 'should be repealed': Has industry turned on industrial carbon pricing?

Nearly a year ago, the head of a major oilsands consortium called on Pierre Poilievre to clarify his position on industrial carbon pricing.

The federal Conservative leader had vowed — loudly and repeatedly — to "axe" the consumer-level carbon tax, but had been evasive at the time about his position on the federally mandated carbon price for large-scale emitters.

"I think it would be very helpful for him to provide greater clarity on that," Pathways Alliance executive chairman Derek Evans told CBC's West of Centre in May 2024.

Ten months later, Evans got his answer, loud and clear.

On Monday morning, Poilievre pledged to eliminate the federal backstop on industrial carbon pricing, if his party were to form the next government. His plan would leave it up to provinces to run their own carbon-pricing systems (as most currently do) or to scrap those systems altogether (which they currently can't do, lest the federal backstop be applied).

By Monday afternoon, the head of a clean energy think-tank was criticizing Poilievre's plan, pointing out that industry leaders have historically been on board with this approach to industrial carbon pricing, perhaps calling for tweaks but not for a complete abandonment of federal standards.

"There really isn't anybody in corporate Canada that's calling for what the Conservative Party has announced today," Pembina Institute executive director Chris Severson-Baker told CBC's Power & Politics.

Until Wednesday, at least.

That's when the heads of more than a dozen major oil and gas companies released an open letter titled "Build Canada Now" that, among other things, called for basically what Poilievre had proposed two days earlier.

"The federal carbon levy on large emitters is not globally cost competitive and should be repealed to allow provincial governments to set more suitable carbon regulations," the group of 14 CEOs, presidents and board chairs wrote.

Among the signatories were five of the six companies that make up the Pathways Alliance, the consortium of oilsands operators chaired by Evans, who less than a year earlier was striking quite a different note on carbon pricing in Canada.

"The advice I would give Pierre Poilievre is carbon policy is going to be absolutely critical to maintain our standing on the world stage," Evans said at the time.

"We've talked for 40 years about climate change. And we've done very, very little about it."

The Pathways Alliance was created when six of Canada's largest oilsands producers — Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus, ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor — came together in an effort to reduce the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.