From opposing carbon pricing to preserving jobs amid an energy transition, federal MPs back in the House of Commons will cross swords on a variety of environmental issues. Here are the issues likely to challenge the Trudeau government.
CO2 pricing: And it's not over yet…
Parliamentary work will resume two weeks after Canadians received their first carbon tax refund.
Barring intense tensions that rose again last fall, the federal carbon pollution pricing system implemented in most provinces and territories will remain a bone of contention between the government and conservative elected officials in 2024.
In October 2023, Justin Trudeau's government raised the ire of certain provinces by granting oil-heated homes a three-year carbon price exemption. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the measure favors Canadians from the Atlantic provinces; 30% of them rely on this fuel to heat their homes.
However, the government closed the door to applications from Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan seeking a similar exemption for natural gas. The Prime Minister of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe, decided that the CO2 tax will no longer be levied in the province from 2024.
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Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre during a press conference at Gardewine Transport, a transportation company, in Winnipeg.
Photo: The Canadian Press / JOHN WOODS
The dissatisfaction caused by the Trudeau government's handling of this issue has provided ammunition to the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, who is actively pushing for the abolition of carbon pricing. Pierre Poilievre says the carbon tax puts more pressure on the shoulders of Canadians who are already struggling with rising costs of living.
In early December, Conservative elected officials tried to block parliamentary work to force the Trudeau government to grant further exemptions. Vain.
We saw that Pierre Poilievre managed to misinform people by saying that carbon pricing was responsible for inflation, which is completely false. Inflation is largely the result of a rise in oil and gas prices, says Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.
While the federal government may want to protect the rest of its carbon pricing policy framework this year, it will face a lot of adversity on this front, adds Équiterre's director of government relations, Marc. -André Viau, added. This is something of a thorn in the side that will remain in place until the end of the Liberal government's term.
The poor decision to exclude the Atlantic provinces has led to a sort of distortion in the mechanism, meaning the system is less stable.
Exceptions for farmers?
Another group wants to keep the pressure on the federal government: the agricultural industry.
Producers across the country are counting on the government to give them a break from the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act with Bill C-234.
The bill originally sought to exempt farmers from the carbon tax on natural gas and propane for certain activities, including grain drying, heating and cooling facilities such as barns and greenhouses.
After repeated back and forth between the lower house and the Senate, the amended text received the green light from the upper house in its third reading last December. In this version, which will be presented to federal parliamentarians at the beginning of the year, the exemption for heating and air conditioning in buildings has been withdrawn, to the great dismay of agricultural producers.
The latter wanted the original text to be adopted unchanged and received the support of several provinces, including Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario.
A competition is expected between the lower house and the Senate, but also between the government and the opposition, according to Marc-André Viau, who recalls that the bill had received the support of all opposition parties at the time.
Sustainable jobs bill slows down
Last year, the Conservatives were criticized by the Liberals and New Democrats for delaying the passage of Bill C-50, which would regulate the country's energy transition. Formerly referred to as just transition, the text was renamed over time to avoid semantic disputes with specific provinces.
The law must make it possible to support and protect workers in more polluting industries who may be forced to change jobs during the transition.
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also opposes the Clean Electricity Regulations, which aim to make Canada's power grid carbon neutral by 2035.
Photo: The Canadian Press / JASON FRANSON
Like Danielle Smith's government in Alberta, Conservative MPs view the Sustainable Jobs Act as a Trojan horse aimed at dismantling – and ultimately eliminating – the country's oil and gas industry. The PCC therefore says it is opposing the bill to protect a key sector of the western provinces' economy.
According to the head of the climate and energy program at Environmental Defense, Aliénor Rougeot, the political battle that elected officials are embroiled in is largely because the law weakens the oil and gas sector's influence over Canadians.
It would eliminate the influence the industry has on communities and workers to whom it presents itself as the only solution.
The argument will no longer hold water once workers have an effective bridge to other environments, such as jobs in the renewable energy sector, she adds.
The bill, introduced in June 2023 by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, is expected to be passed under Senate scrutiny in February. Environmental Defense hopes the text will be adopted by June.
Oil and gas sector: a ceiling to be clarified
Minister Steven Guilbeault used last year's COP28 on climate change in Dubai to present the outlines of his framework for limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector. The federal government will require industry to reduce emissions by 35% to 38% below 2019 levels by 2030.
This flagship promise, the implementation of which is eagerly awaited by environmental groups, must be further implemented this year through the submission of formal regulations.
The Environmental Defense organization hopes to be able to consult the text of the draft regulation by March. This doesn't restrict anyone at the moment, emphasizes Aliénor Rougeot.
Although she welcomes the introduction of a cap, Ms. Rougeot regrets that the framework's targets are lower than those of the country as a whole, namely to reduce emissions by 40 to 45% by 2030. This, in her opinion, reflects the discrepancy, which is a huge gap between the expected efforts of the biggest polluters and the rest of the Canadian population.
Same story from Climate Action Network Canada, where we expect it will be up to other sectors and other workers to compensate for the flexibility granted to the industry. Particular attention also needs to be paid to measures planned by Ottawa to help oil and gas producers adapt, said Caroline Brouillette. These loopholes risk weakening regulation, she says.
The oil and gas industry, which is making record profits while burning the planet, does not need flexibility measures. It needs robustness.
However, Caroline Brouillette is particularly concerned about the federal government's planned schedule, which postpones the emissions cap to 2026. In their opinion, far too late to achieve Canada's 2030 climate goals.
In this regard, Saskatchewan and Alberta are once again competing together against Ottawa. Their governments have also opposed proposed methane emissions reduction and clean electricity regulations that the federal government must implement in 2024.