Carney budget omits ‘climate competitiveness strategy’ costs

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Canadians wondering how much Prime Minister Mark Carney's “climate competitiveness strategy” will cost them will have to keep waiting.

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Given that liberal climate change programs will cost taxpayers more than $200 billion to date.or nearly $5,000 for every Canadian, it's time for answers.

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Although it calls its climate competitiveness strategy “the central pillar of the government's plan to become the strongest economy in the G7”, Carney's Budget dedicated only nine of its 406 pages to the topic, which were largely a statement of future intentions.

When he announced his climate change strategy while running for Liberal leadership in January, Carney called it a key component—beyond repeal Carbon tax on consumers introduced by the Trudeau government — was to “improve and tighten the output-based pricing system for large emitters (the so-called industrial carbon tax) to ensure that carbon markets function properly.”

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Budget details are sparse

He said it would lead to “big polluting (paying) consumers reducing their carbon footprint through the development and integration of a new consumer carbon credit market with an industrial pricing system”, details to come, none of which were included in the budget.

Also in January, Carney promised to “introduce new consumer incentives to lower costs for families investing in our clean future,” but his budget did not provide implementation details.

In January, Carney pledged to “promote fair competition and improve environmental outcomes by developing Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” It wasn't even mentioned in his budget.

Perhaps this is because the “mechanism” would be a tariff levied on imported goods from countries that the Canadian government believes are not doing enough to combat climate change, which would raise the cost of those imported goods for Canadians.

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All this information is needed to make an informed assessment of whether Carney's climate competitiveness strategy will do what he promises.

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Unattainable goals?

It's worrying that this could be costs cannot be determined even after these details are made public.

This is because while the cost of a consumer carbon tax for the average household can be calculated independently, the costs associated with an industrial carbon tax will be hidden in the overall retail cost of goods, which is influenced by many factors.

Carney's budget also does not say whether his government intends to implement Trudeau government's 2030 goal reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions in Canada to at least 40% below 2005 levels.

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Perhaps this is because it is not available.

As of last year, Canada's emissions were just 8.5% below 2005 levels, and two major monitoring agencies – the Canadian Climate Institute and the Trottier Energy Institute at the Polytechnique of Montreal – had already concluded that the 2030 target was unattainable.

Mom on future requirements for electric vehicles

The Carney government remains committed to its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, but committing to achieving something in 25 years is foolish given that election cycles last four years or less.

Carney's “climate competitiveness strategy” also doesn't say whether his government will rescind the Trudeau government's electric vehicle mandate, which was supposed to start at 20% of all new car sales next year and grow to 100% by 2035.

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Carney has abandoned the 20% target for 2026, but has not yet discussed future EV mandates, and his budget leaves no answer to whether he intends to make good on his campaign promise to restore federal subsidies of up to $5,000 for Canadians buying electric vehicles.

His budget suggests the government could scrap a controversial cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, but only if effective carbon markets are created, methane rules are tightened and carbon capture and storage technologies are successful.

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