On energy, Prime Minister Carney must pick a lane.
The PM must decide wither to continue subsidizing and expanding fossil fuels, or steer decisively toward a clean, independent, and resilient energy future.
Caroline Brouillette, Executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.
The Hill Times
May 21, 2025
As Prime Minister Mark Carney gets going, Canadians are facing accelerating unnatural disasters, spiking food and energy prices amid an affordability crisis, growing concerns about our country’s sovereignty, and commercial and geopolitical chaos. While the environment was most notable for its absence in the public conversation this past election campaign, these issues that were on voters’ minds are all connected to the climate crisis, and how it’s affecting our economy and our communities.
Carney has long been outspoken about the risks of inaction on climate change. His record of pushing for alignment of the financial system with climate goals signals a deep understanding of the economic transformation underway. Now, with the opportunity to lead Canada through that transformation, he must pick a lane: continue subsidizing and expanding fossil fuels, or steer decisively toward a clean, independent, and resilient energy future.
The Liberal Party’s ambitions on fighting climate change have long been undercut by their muddled, all-of-the-above approach to energy. In this election, the contradiction persisted. On the one hand, the Liberals pledged a pan-Canadian electricity grid——a crucial nation-building project that could underpin and accelerate the development of Indigenous-led and community-owned renewables, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and position Canada’s industries for competitive advantage in a decarbonizing world. On the other hand, Carney signalled openness to expanding fossil fuel infrastructure including east-west pipelines. Just three days before calling the election, his government announced $200-million in public funding for the Cedar LNG project in British Columbia. He has yet to clarify whether he will end the previous government’s nearly $75-billion in financial support to the oil and gas sector over the last five years.
In addition to the obvious moral question of why taxpayers should pay polluters, oil demand is already plateauing in all advanced economies and China. The world is headed into a gas glut. Continuing to invest public resources to pay polluters for risky investments and their own overdue decarbonization efforts is not only fiscally wasteful, but also deeply unstrategic, especially given Carney’s own warnings around tightening fiscal space.
As we are seeing right now, the last 25 years of “continental energy security” have weakened rather than increased Canada’s resilience. Not only are we hooked on volatile fuels flowing through transborder pipelines to United States refineries, but many of the oil and gas companies operating here are also controlled by U.S. investors, including asset managers with deep ties to President Donald Trump’s political and financial networks. The projects now being promoted under the guise of “energy sovereignty” risk, ironically enriching the same players who are undermining our democracy and climate progress.
Instead of maintaining a declining, dangerous, and turbulent industry on life support, we should be investing in supporting Canadian workers and communities in the transition towards a net-zero economy, while shifting away from U.S. market dependence. The workers and communities most impacted by the move to a net-zero economy and the need to diversify from U.S. markets are highly overlapping and concentrated. It is crucial that we protect workers in industries where employment levels may not rebound, while ensuring our workforce has the tools to succeed and fully seize the opportunities of the booming clean energy economy. These are investments with real payback for families, communities, and the country’s economic future.
In this minority Parliament, fully committing to renewable, Canadian energy solutions will be key to getting things done. This election, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP had bolder climate offerings than the Liberals, and on the debate stage, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet was unequivocal about his party’s opposition to new oil and gas infrastructure. Quebecers support ambitious climate action, and notably just sent a contingent of Liberal MPs to Ottawa and contributed to delivering the party its win.
In 2025, refusing to pick a lane is a recipe for chaos and deepening risk. If Carney wants to put his mark on a transformation that will build our country’s resilience for decades to come, he must be bold, ambitious, and decisive. It’s time for Canada to skate to where the puck is going, and align the Canadian economy with a safer and sounder future.
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