From the Fraser Institute

By Kenneth P. Green

Mark Carney, our next prime minister, has floated a climate policy plan that he says will be better for Canadians than the “divisive [read: widely hated] consumer carbon tax.”

But in reality, Carney’s plan is an exercise in misdirection. Under his plan, instead of paying the “consumer carbon tax” directly and receiving carbon rebates, Canadians will pay more via higher prices for products that flow from Canada’s “large industrial emitters” who Carney plans to saddle with higher carbon taxes, indirectly imposing the consumer carbon tax by passing those costs onto Canadians.

Carney also wants to shift government subsidies to consumer products of so-called “clean technologies.” As Carney told the National Observer, “We’re introducing changes so that if you decide to insulate your home, install a heat pump, or switch to a fuel-efficient car, those companies will pay you—not the taxpayer, not the government, but those companies.” What Carney does not mention is that much of the costs imposed on “those companies” will also be folded into the costs of the products consumers buy, but the cause of rising prices will be less distinguishable and attributable to government action.

Moreover, Carney says he wants to make Canada a “clean energy superpower” and “expand and modernize our energy infrastructure so that we are less dependent on foreign suppliers, and the United States as a customer.” But this too is absurd. Far from being in any way poised to become a “clean energy superpower,” Canada likely won’t meet its own projected electricity demand by 2050 under existing environmental regulations.

For example, to generate the electricity needed through 2050 solely with solar power, Canada would need to build 840 solar-power generation stations the size of Alberta’s Travers Solar Project, which would take about 1,700 construction-years to accomplish. If we went with wind power to meet future demand, Canada would need to build 574 wind-power installations the size of Quebec’s Seigneurie de Beaupre wind-power station, which would take about 1,150 construction years to accomplish. And if we relied solely on hydropower, we’d need to build 134 hydro-power facilities the size of the Site C power station in British Columbia, which would take 938 construction years to accomplish. Finally, if we relied solely on nuclear power, we’d need to construct 16 new nuclear plants the size of Ontario’s Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, taking “only” 112 construction years to accomplish.

Again, Mark Carney’s climate plan is an exercise in misdirection—a rhetorical sleight of hand to convince Canadians that he’ll lighten the burden on taxpayers and shift away from the Trudeau government’s overzealous climate policies of the past decade. But scratch the surface of the Carney plan and you’ll see climate policies that will hit Canadian consumers harder, with likely higher prices for goods and services. As a federal election looms, Canadians should demand from all candidates—no matter their political stripe—a detailed plan to rekindle Canada’s energy sector and truly lighten the load for Canadians and their families.

 Dan McTeague

Congratulations are in order for Doug Ford, newly re-elected in Ontario to his third consecutive majority government. As a proud Ontarian myself, I wish Premier Ford great success, which will ultimately be measured not by how many votes he’s won, but by the quality of the policies he implements and how well he responds to the challenges which arise on his watch.

Of course, the two are related. Bad policy can instigate a crisis. And bad policy in the midst of one often transforms a challenge into a catastrophe. Just one instructive example: Remember that in the wake of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which, as John Robson recently observed on Twitter/X, helped turn “a painful short-term correction into an agonizing decade of misery.”

That is a moment in history our American friends would do well to remember just now. Though Donald Trump has been crowing about the economic benefits of tariffs for decades, the historical record tells a different story. And, more importantly for us, no matter how much damage Trump’s tariffs do to the American economy, they will be worse for Canada.

This is a moment in which our country is in desperate need of political leadership. That isn’t going to come from Ottawa, where the Trudeau Liberals and their accomplices in the NDP have shuttered parliament for months so that they can hold a coronation for their fellow Green Elitist, Mark Carney, who is all set to double-down on the disastrous net-zero policies of his predecessor.

So we are going to have to rely, at least in the near term, on our premiers to respond to this crisis. And so far very few of them – the notable exception being Danielle Smith – have shown the kind of ingenuity and resilience we need at this moment.

Ford himself has done everything he can to make himself the face of Canada’s response to the tariff threat. He’s made a great show of removing (already purchased) American-made products from LCBO.’s shelves, he has pledged to put a 25% export tax on energy, and he’s threatened to cut off Ontario’s energy exports to the United States entirely. In defense of the latter, Ford said, “They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard.”

That might sound impressive, but unfortunately Canada lacks the economic capacity to “come back twice as hard.” Years of mismanagement, on the federal, provincial, and even municipal levels, have left us in a terrible position to negotiate with the world’s largest economy. We have taken every opportunity to shoot ourselves in the foot, chasing foolish net-zero pipedreams which have succeeded only in squandering our capital, and smothering the oil and gas industry upon which our prosperity relies.

Justin Trudeau and his cronies deserve a lot of the blame for that, but the Ford government deserves its share as well. Ford long ago drank the net-zero kool-aid. He embraced the so-called “green energy transition” to such an extent that his government renamed its energy ministry the ‘Ministry of Energy and Electrification,’ a nod to the idea that we need to move away from fossil fuels and embrace electrically-powered everything. Neglecting to mention, of course, where that electricity is going to come from. (Hint: it’s not from expensive and inefficient wind and solar projects! Which, by the way, Ford has also invested heavily in.) And, relatedly, he’s stated that he will not be happy until Ontario achieves a 100% zero-carbon electricity grid, moving away from affordable and reliable natural gas as an energy source.

On top of that, Ford has gone “all in” on electric vehicles, teaming up with Trudeau to invest tens-of-billions of taxpayer dollars in a bid to attract EV manufacturing to his province. This investment wasn’t looking so hot before Trump’s election – remember when the Ford Motor Company scrapped their plan to build EVs at their plant in Oakville, Ont, due to “an unexpected slowdown” in demand for battery powered cars? And it has looked much worse since, once Trump got to work repealing the Biden administration’s de facto EV mandate.

Without that mandate, there will be a few hundred million fewer potential EV buyers in the world. People aren’t exactly lining up to buy EVs if they don’t have to. And though Trudeau’s 2035 EV mandate is still in place, even the Canadian market is softer than expected, especially after the federal program subsidizing the purchase of EVs – to the tune of $5,000 a piece – ran out of money and ended abruptly earlier this year.

But despite the changed environment, Ford doubled down on his commitment to EVs during the campaign. His platform read, “A re-elected PC government would continue to make these investments regardless of any decision by the U.S.,” and Ford continually reaffirmed his intention to continue to “invest in the sector.”

This is worse than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s closer to setting fire to the few lifeboats the ship actually has.

Ontario’s voters have once again entrusted our province to Doug Ford. But if he doesn’t start taking this crisis seriously – by shoring up the province’s financial situation and increasing our competitiveness by changing course on EVs and kicking net-zero to the curb – he won’t be remembered as the first premier to win three consecutive majorities in over 60 years. Instead he’ll be remembered as the guy who took Ontario past the point of no return.

Dan McTeague is the president of Canadians for Affordable Energy and a former Liberal member of Parliament.