Prime Minister Carney axes Trudeau climate plan, expects emissions to rise
Carney calls the previous government's approach 'too expensive' and 'divisive.' The shift prioritizes oil and gas expansion.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney has formally departed from the climate strategy he inherited, saying the Trudeau-era plan was unsustainable for Canadian households.
"In my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term," Carney said in a video posted Tuesday. "It would have been too expensive for Canadians. Canadians who are already struggling with affordability."
He also called the plan "too divisive for our country" and "an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart both at home and abroad."
Carney acknowledged the consequence: Canada's emissions will be higher in the next few years than they would have been under the previous plan. "I promised you I wouldn't sugar coat tough messages," he said.
The new government has scrapped key planks of the Trudeau climate policy: the consumer carbon price and a cap on pollution from the oil and gas sector. It is expanding liquefied natural gas exports and supporting a new pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast.
"We can't afford to restrain the growth of an important part of our energy mix, oil and gas, to meet a short-term goal," Carney said.
Conservatives and oil-and-gas supporters have long argued that the Trudeau plan would cost Canadian families too much and harm economic growth. The Trudeau government countered that measures like the consumer carbon tax returned more money to most Canadians through federal rebates than they paid, increasing affordability, and that it was possible to protect the environment while growing the economy.
Carney was careful to characterize the Trudeau plan as "well intentioned and suited for the times it was made." But the world has shifted, he argued. "The certainties of the world of 2015 are long gone," he said, referring to the first year of the decade-long Trudeau government. "Our neighbourhood hasn't been this hostile since Canada was founded. The world hasn't been this unstable geopolitically since the end of the Second World War."
Youth advocates and climate groups are suing the government, urging the courts to order Ottawa to release a climate plan that aligns with Canada's legally binding climate targets.
