Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to eliminate Canada’s industrial carbon pricing system if elected, a move experts warn would undermine the country’s emission reduction efforts and potentially harm economic competitiveness.
“We will take the carbon tax off your gas, heat and food,” Poilievre said on Monday. “But we will also axe the tax on Canadian steel, aluminum, natural gas, food production, concrete and all other industries.”
The announcement comes days after Prime Minister Mark Carney removed the consumer carbon price as one of his first actions in office, suggesting Poilievre is seeking to maintain the carbon tax as a political wedge issue despite the shifting landscape.
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His promise comes as the political tide has turned sharply against the Conservatives. According to an Angus Reid poll released Monday, Liberals under Carney have surged to 42% support compared to the Conservatives’ 37%, erasing a more than 20-point Conservative lead from just a couple of months ago.
The same poll shows Canadians prefer Carney over Poilievre by a significant margin on economic issues. 55% of respondents said Carney would better handle trade disputes with the United States, compared to just 31% for Poilievre — a critical finding as experts warn about trade implications of removing carbon pricing.
Economic analysts also question the policy’s economic rationale. They warn the European Union will implement carbon border tariffs next year that would make Canadian exports more expensive if they lack domestic carbon pricing.
“Us removing our industrial price is not only offside with the Europeans… but we may end up offside with the Americans,” Chris Bataille, an adjunct research fellow at Columbia University specializing in industrial emissions, to the National Observer. Bataille also described Poilievre’s move as desperate.
“It reeks of desperation, to be honest,” he said.
Industry groups representing steel producers, manufacturers, and chemical companies previously described industrial carbon pricing as “the backbone of decarbonization” in a letter to provincial environment ministers last October.
According to the Canadian Climate Institute, industrial carbon pricing is projected to deliver between 20% and 48% of Canada’s emissions reductions by 2030, making it a cornerstone of the country’s climate strategy.
The Prime Minister’s office responded that Poilievre’s opposition to environmental plans “has always been designed to let the biggest polluters off the hook.”
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One Response
If Canada will axe the carbon pricing it is a blessing for the Canadian citizen and economy.
If the EU will implement carbon tariffs on imports Canadian exports, oil, nickel, aluminium, grain will be affected in the same way as such imports from other parts of the world. It makes Europe poor but will not change competitiveness of the Canadian economy.