This article was published on April 9, 2024.
By Chris Varcoe
The federal government has no intention of scrapping its cap on oil and gas emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an audience of oilpatch executives Friday.
“I asked if he was going to take the emissions cap off the table,” Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Deborah Yedlin told the Calgary Herald Friday, after Trudeau took part in a 45-minute public session hosted by Calgary Economic Development.
“And he said, ‘Not a chance.’”
Trudeau was in town for an announcement on new housing investments in next week’s federal budget, Herald columnist Chris Varcoe reports. But he also joined Calgary Economic Development CEO Brad Parry for a 45-minute “fireside chat” in front of an audience of about 90 business heavyweights, including Suncor Energy CEO Rich Kruger, Cenovus Energy CEO Jon McKenzie, and Pathways Alliance President Kendall Dilling.
Pathways is a consortium of five companies that account for about 95 per cent of Canada’s oilsands production.
In an open letter last week to federal Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault, the Calgary Chamber urged Ottawa to drop the emissions cap, contending that it would stifle investment. Trudeau made it clear that won’t be happening.
“In the fireside chat, Trudeau rejected their assertion that the emissions cap is really a production cap that will force the industry to throttle back output,” Varcoe writes. “The prime minister stressed global investors are looking to put money into decarbonization projects and Canada needs to be well-positioned for the future as the world demands lower-carbon barrels.”
The cap targets oil and gas specifically, Trudeau added, because the industry needs to step up.
“We’re working with all sectors to reduce emissions,” the PM said. “But it remains that the oil and gas sector continues to be a significant source of emissions in this country. And that’s why we’re talking about putting a cap on emissions—one that we’ve worked closely with the industry on, a cap on emissions, not a cap on production.”
“We remain very concerned about the emissions cap, as proposed. But I think at a certain point, you have to take the prime minister at his word,” Dilling said afterwards. “He doesn’t intend it to be a production cap. And so we’ve got to figure out…how all those pieces work together so that it doesn’t unintentionally do that.”
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