‘Who wasn’t telling the truth?’: Alberta premier wants clarity from PM Carney on emissions cap

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is demanding Prime Minister Mark Carney clarify his position on the federal emissions cap.

In a statement issued Friday, Smith said she appreciated comments made by the new PM about the subject during their meeting in Edmonton the day before.

However, the sentiment turned sour when she heard federal environment Minister Terry Duiguid said something different on the other side of the country.

“The Prime Minister told me in yesterday’s meeting – and then later in his press conference with the media that same day – that he was not in favour of hard caps like that. He said he was interested in results – in getting projects like pipelines in the ground. That was good to hear because we all know you can’t fill new pipelines and cap oil production at the same time,” Smith said.

“The Prime Minister’s words sounded kind of nice yesterday – until I found out that his new environment minister had just told media on the other side of the country that the federal Liberals would be keeping the emissions cap in place.”

The premier says this scenario is continuing the pattern of the last 10 years of Liberal rule.

“Liberals come to Alberta – smile for the cameras – tell everyone how much they are going to work with Alberta and support the energy sector,” Smith said. “Then they leave, go home, and proceed to do everything in their power to roadblock and scare away investment from the energy sector.”

In the 2021 federal election, under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, the Liberals promised to cap emissions from oil and gas production. They started the process to regulate the cap a year later.

In November, they introduced draft regulations — two years behind schedule — that require producers to cut emissions by about one-third over the next eight years, and said that the regulations did not place a cap on production.

The federal government also proposed a cap-and-trade system where each company would be given an emissions allowance equating to one unit per tonne of carbon pollution. Companies that pollute less would be able to sell their leftover allowance units for profit, while companies that don’t reduce their emissions enough would have to buy allowance units from other companies to stay in compliance.

The Liberals have repeatedly said they aren’t capping production, just the emissions that come from it.

Smith and Alberta’s conservative governments blatantly disagree.

“Yesterday, in my discussions with Prime Minister Mark Carney, I made it clear Alberta will no longer tolerate an emissions cap on oil and gas – which absolutely works like a production cap that scares away billions in investment and thousands of jobs, makes us more dependent on the United States, and has been found by Ottawa’s own Parliamentary Budget Office to be greatly destructive to the Canadian economy,” the premier said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to scrap the emissions cap if he is elected.

Carney is widely expected to call a federal election on Sunday, which would send Canadians to the polls in a matter of weeks.

Smith says the new prime minister needs to be clear about his position on this issue before that happens.

“In fact, we want the answer today. Who wasn’t telling the truth yesterday – the Prime Minister or his environment minister?” she said. “We all deserve to know.”

-With files from Nick Murray, The Canadian Press