Friday, Mark Carney made a policy announcement at Pier 21 in Halifax where he essentially told Canadians that his plan to fight Trump’s tariffs and his plan to solve Canadian’s economic woes are one in the same — a green economy.
Carney told the gathered crowd, that one of the reasons why the Liberal Party, with himself at the helm, need to win the coming federal election is impending tariffs from American President Donald Trump. “At times like these, we need serious leadership and a serious plan,” he said.
What’s Carney’s “serious plan” to deal with Trump’s promise to impose 25 per cent across the board tariffs? While not mentioning a plan in his opening remarks, when pressed by a reporter, Carney said the Liberal party’s, and therefore Canadians,’ hopes come down to the negotiating chops of ministers Mélanie Joly, David McGuinty, and Marc Miller in Washington.
If they fail, he suggested we can always just impose dollar-for-dollar targeted regulatory tariffs.
Then Carney showed us his cards. He suggested that Canada take this “opportunity to reinforce the strength of our economy” with green initiatives because, he said, the U.S. “is taking their eye off the ball of some big issues” — read, climate change — “that are going to be fundamental, not just to the future of our planet, but to the competitiveness of companies. So, let’s take advantage of that and move forward.”
Canada’s Trump tariff nightmare is Mark Carney’s big opportunity to turn Canada into the climate Emerald City Carney’s always dreamed of. Good to know.
The bulk of Carney’s speech Friday was devoted to explaining to the crowd that the all the major issues that Canadians are facing are really wrapped into one big one — climate change.
According to Carney, addressing the problem of “helping hardworking families get ahead,” “boosting the competitiveness of Canadian companies,” and “building the strongest economy in the G7,” is all affected by “how Canadians play their part in addressing climate change.”
I guess we have only ourselves to blame for our current economic woes. Canadians simply haven’t been acting enough in the best interests of the environment.
Carney then begins to make some confusing statements about whether or not the carbon tax was ever a good idea.
“Since Canada’s climate plan has become too divisive, it’s time for a new, more effective climate plan that everyone can get behind,” he said. “It’s a plan that makes our economy more competitive, it grows good jobs today, and it will grow better ones in the future. There are literally billions of dollars of investment on the table and millions of jobs at stake,” he continued. It’s too bad Carney did not expand on the billions of investment dollars that are on the table and from whom, as I’m sure Canadians would like to know.
He then added, “My government will immediately remove the consumer carbon tax.” This surprising statement was then followed by applause from the room.
Carney continued, “But we won’t stop there. Instead, what we’ll do is create a system of incentives to reward Canadians for making greener choices, so it means that you’ll no longer have to pay more to fuel your car or heat your home, but when you choose an energy efficient appliance, or an electric car, or home insulation you will be rewarded.”
And who will we pay for these programs? “We will get the big polluters to pay for it,” he said.
Maybe Carney is unaware, but these incentives already exist in Canada. Provinces have federal and provincial-level electric car incentives, the government offers various green incentives for homes including the green homes loan and the oil to heat pump affordability program. None of these already-existing green incentives make big polluters pay for anything, and it’s unclear how any new ones will either. Canadians should ask to see the math from the former Bank of Canada governor on this.
Carney also seems unaware of the problem of industry simply passing any higher costs onto consumers. It is also the problem with another of the initiatives he announced Friday, something called a “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism,” which would apply a tariff on so-called carbon intensive goods. Fight Trump protectionism with green protectionism, I guess.
Carney then explained why he felt the need to replace the consumer carbon tax. “If we were only to remove the carbon tax, we would create two problems: first, Canada’s emissions would not decrease as rapidly as before, and, secondly, most Canadian households would be worse off because of the end of the rebate.”
It’s questionable how much the carbon tax actually decreases the emissions that Canadians need to make in their daily lives. Canadians still need to drive back and forth to pick up their kids, they still need to pick up groceries for their families, and to heat their homes. Most Canadians are not producing the level of emissions as say, the outgoing prime minister does jet-setting around the globe. Most of us are just not that wealthy. Therefore, a punitive tax has never really made sense and has only created financial pain for Canadians.
Carney conveniently failed to mention how the carbon tax indirectly increases the costs of all the goods that Canadians buy, and not just fuel, which is directly taxed. He side-steps that question completely in favour of the argument that Canadians should remain dependant upon a Liberal government who issues cheques, instead of simply having their day-to-day costs and taxes lowered.
And as far as carbon emissions go, even the 7.1 per cent reduction in emissions from 2005 to 2022 in Canada have been, according to the federal government, attributed to “emission reductions from the electricity and heavy industry sectors” as “the effects of the pandemic created an industrial slowdown and significant reductions in trade and travel by air and land.” On top of this, Canada was producing only 1.5 per cent of worldwide carbon emissions as of 2023. This suggests that the punitive carbon tax that Carney and the Liberal Party supported up until now was never fair to consumers given our national and global footprint.
Does Canada sound like a country that needs to base its entire economic system on climate change? Or, do Canadians, perhaps have more pressing concerns thy want dealt with, like cost of living, lower taxes, health care, crime, and an ongoing opioid crisis?
Carney claims, vaguely, that he will somehow still protect the carbon tax rebate cheques, while cutting the carbon tax, and that he would do this by implementing his “new climate policies that are as at least as effective in lowering emissions and by bringing forward new economic measure that will make Canadian families better off.”
Carney’s “serious plan” will require a level of government interference and business brokering in the Canadian economy previously unseen, by shifting the carbon costs from consumers to industry, if he even keeps that promise.
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