From the National Citizens Coalition

By Alexander Brown

After a week of open insults to Western Canada and Canada’s great energy producers, a refusal to address the generational housing crisis concerns held by millions of Canadians, and (another) refusal to table a federal budget, one might be forgiven for assuming we’re living the last decade all over again.

But in many ways, so far, we are.

“This has been as bad a start as it can get,” I put in a press release Thursday morning, and on that, there can be little doubt.

Gregor Robertson, Carney’s new housing minister, already represents a Brantford Boomer-style middle-finger to young and working Canadians. The architect of Vancouver’s historic affordability crisis, and one of the pioneer early-allowers of the ‘Vancouver model’ of foreign investment fraud, Robertson, just days into his federal role, declared that home prices “don’t need to come down,” dismissing the struggles of millions of Canadians priced out of the market. This tone-deaf stance, his apparent refusal to understand basic principles of supply and demand, coupled with his track record of overseeing Vancouver’s affordability crisis and the price of new homes soaring by 140%, suggests the Liberals have no plan to deliver on their promise to allow Canadian under-50s back into the housing market.

On pipelines and the dire need to kill Bill C-69, both Steven Guilbeault — a walking, talking unity crisis — and Dominic LeBlanc have already contradicted Mark Carney’s carefully-worded half-promises on becoming an “energy superpower.” The provinces may well be committed to working together — even, perhaps surprisingly, Carney’s Liberal-lite allies at Queen’s Park — but if the feds continue to be adversarial towards Canadian unity and prosperity, the doldrums of the past few years won’t just continue — they’ll accelerate.

On budgets — well, there isn’t one. (Maybe a mini one in the fall.) Still coasting on the convenient excuse of Donald Trump, even with those elbows down already, the Carney PMO, run by the same Trudeau advisers, who champion the PM as some “economic genius” (the collapse of GFANZ would suggest otherwise), have picked up right where Justin left off when it comes to economic unaccountability.

The decision to appoint Sean Fraser as minister of justice is just as troubling. Fraser, who previously oversaw historically unsustainable immigration levels as immigration minister and delivered no measurable results as housing minister, now takes on a justice portfolio at a time when random violent attacks are leaving families shaken across Canada. Reports of stabbings, assaults, and public safety breakdowns dominate headlines, yet Fraser’s early comments suggest he may prioritize working from home over tackling the crime wave head-on. Canadians need a justice minister focused on restoring safety and locking up criminals, not one repeatedly failing upward into another role he’s unprepared to handle. Like the endless healthcare wait-times coupled with unvetted mass-immigration, the continuation of a status-quo on drugs, crime, chaos, and catch-and-release will quite literally kill, and kill by the thousands.

On all of this, the hollowness of “elbows up,” the cynical fear-mongering, the blaringly-obvious rhetorical hedges to ever avoid saying “oil,” “gas,” or “pipeline” on the campaign trail, the lack of movement on crime or chaos, and the threat of more of the same on housing, we tried to warn Liberal voters.

That it didn’t matter to them, that it still won’t, will be a source of frustration and alienation that doesn’t bode well for the future of ‘Team Canada,’ if that team still even exists at all. You deserved better. Your kids and grandkids deserved better. There’s still time to right some of this wrong, to soften the beginnings of a new lost Liberal decade, that, together, we may mercifully cut short. But this is bad. There’s no beating around the bush.

We tried. We failed. They failed.

We get up, and try again.

Alexander Brown is the Director of the National Citizens Coalition.

From Energy Now

By Tammy Nemeth and Ron Wallace

Bill S-243 seeks to “reshape the logic of capital markets” by mandating that all federally regulated financial institutions, banks, pension funds, insurance companies and federal financial Crown Corporations align their investment portfolios with Canada’s climate commitments

Senator Rosa Galvez’s recent op-ed in the National Observer champions the reintroduction of her Climate-Aligned Finance Act (Bill S-243) as a cornerstone for an “orderly transition” to achieving a low-carbon Canadian economy. With Prime Minister Mark Carney—a global figure in sustainable finance—at the helm, Senator Galvez believes Canada has a “golden opportunity” to lead on climate-aligned finance. However, a closer examination of Bill S-243 reveals a troubling agenda that potentially risks not only crippling Canada’s oil and gas sector and undermining economic stability, but one that could impose unhelpful, discriminatory measures. As Carney pledges to transform Canada’s economy, this legislation would also erode the principles of fairness in our economic and financial system.

Introduced in 2022, Bill S-243 seeks to “reshape the logic of capital markets” by mandating that all federally regulated financial institutions, banks, pension funds, insurance companies and federal financial Crown Corporations align their investment portfolios with Canada’s climate commitments, particularly with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.  The Bill’s provisions are sweeping and punitive, targeting emissions-intensive sectors like oil and gas with what could only be described as an unprecedented regulatory overreach. It requires institutions to avoid financing “new fossil fuel supply infrastructure” and to plan for a “fossil-free future,” effectively discouraging investment in Canada’s energy sector. To that end, it imposes capital-risk weights of 1,250% on debt for new fossil fuel projects and 150% or more for existing ones, making such financing prohibitively expensive. These measures, as confirmed by the Canadian Bankers’ Association and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions in 2023 Senate testimony, would have the effect of forcing Canadian financial institutions to exit oil and gas financing altogether. It also enshrines into law that entities put climate commitments ahead of fiduciary duty:

“The persons for whom a duty is established under subsection (1) [alignment with climate commitments] must give precedence to that duty over all other duties and obligations of office, and, for that purpose, ensuring the entity is in alignment with climate commitments is deemed to be a superseding matter of public interest.”

While the applicability of the term used in the legislation that defines a “reporting entity” may be a subject of some debate, the legislation would nonetheless direct financial institutions to put “climate over people”.

There are significant implications here for the Canadian oil and gas sector. This backbone of the economy employs thousands and generates billions in revenue. Yet, under Bill S-243, financial institutions would effectively be directed to divest from those companies if not the entire sector. How can Canada become an “energy superpower” if its financial system is directed to effectively abandon the conventional energy sector?

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Beyond economics, Bill S-243 raises profound ethical concerns, particularly with its boardroom provisions. At least one board member of every federally regulated financial institution must have “climate expertise”; excluded from serving as a director would be anyone who has worked for, lobbied or held shares in a fossil fuel company unless their position in the fossil fuel company was to help it align with climate commitments defined in part as “planning for a fossil fuel–free future.” How is “climate expertise” defined? The proposed legislation says it “means a person with demonstrable experience in proposing or implementing climate actions” or, among other characteristics, any person “who has acute lived experience related to the physical or economic damages of climate change.” Bill S-243’s ideological exclusion of oil and gas-affiliated individuals from the boards of financial institutions would set a dangerous precedent that risks normalizing discrimination under the guise of environmental progress to diminish executive expertise, individual rights and the interests of shareholders.

Mark Carney’s leadership adds complexity to this debate. As the founder of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, Carney has long advocated for climate risk integration in finance, despite growing corporate withdrawal from the initiative. Indeed, when called to testify on Bill S-243 in May 2024, Carney praised Senator Galvez’s initiative and generally supported the bill stating: “Certain aspects of the proposed law are definitely achievable and actually essential.”  If Carney’s Liberal government embraces Bill S-243, or something similar, it would send a major negative signal to the Canadian energy sector, especially at a time of strained Federal-Provincial relations and as the Trump Administration pivots away from climate-related regulation.

Canada’s economy and energy future faces a pivotal moment.  Bill S-243 is punitive, discriminatory and economically reckless while threatening the economic resilience that the Prime Minister claims to champion. A more balanced strategy, one that supports innovation without effectively dismantling the financial underpinnings of a vital industry, is essential. What remains to be seen is will this federal government prioritize economic stability and regulatory fairness over ideological climate zeal?

Tammy Nemeth is a U.K.-based energy analyst. Ron Wallace is a Calgary-based energy analyst and former Permanent Member of the National Energy Board.