Carney picks up Trudeau’s net-zero wrecking ball

With Mark Carney in charge, Canada’s self-destructive energy and emissions policies are about to get worse

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Justin Trudeau’s carbon taxes and net-zero crusade crippled Canada’s economy and doubled the national debt. Now, voters have handed the reins to someone just as committed to net zero, but more cunning and better connected to the global eco-zealot establishment. His devotion to global climate orthodoxy and emissions reduction policies will take Trudeau’s economic damage to the next level.

Mark Carney isn’t a fresh start—he’s a polished continuation of the same destructive agenda. As co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and former UN special envoy for climate action and finance, he’s deeply embedded in the international climate establishment.

GFANZ is a global coalition of banks, insurers and investment firms that aims to push trillions of dollars in private capital toward net-zero goals, often by pressuring companies to abandon fossil fuel investments.

Net-zero policies, in theory, aim to balance carbon emissions with carbon removal efforts. In practice, they’ve meant higher carbon taxes, expensive subsidies for unreliable wind and solar, and aggressive restrictions on Canada’s oil and gas sector.

Trudeau’s widely unpopular consumer carbon taxes were quietly scrapped to ease Carney’s path to power, but the taxes didn’t disappear. He simply shifted the burden to manufacturers, where it’s hidden from voters but still raises prices. Now, businesses take the blame while the Carney government escapes scrutiny.

Carney’s elite financial background leaves him out of touch with ordinary Canadians struggling to feed their families and small business owners working 14-hour days to meet payroll. To him, they’re just part of the carbon-emitting masses ruining the planet.

He now claims he wants to make Canada both a “conventional” and “clean” energy superpower. But in both cases, that ship has already sailed, despite the roadblocks his allies helped build.

On the conventional side, Canada’s 171 billion barrels of proven oil reserves rank third in the world. We produce 5.1 million barrels per day, fourth globally, and have vast untapped natural gas resources ideal for LNG exports.

Oil and gas are the bedrock of our economy, funding equalization payments, generating foreign exchange and supporting the Canadian dollar. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers reports the sector contributes over $70 billion to GDP annually, pays $94 billion in taxes and royalties, and will see $40 billion in capital investment in 2025—more than any other industry.

The industry supports 900,000 direct and indirect jobs across engineering, environmental technology, safety, finance and construction. Oil and gas exports top $100 billion annually, making up 20 per cent of Canada’s trade balance.

Yet much of Quebec’s oil still comes from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Nigeria via foreign-flagged tankers sailing up the St. Lawrence. Despite Canada’s vast reserves, Quebec relies on foreign oil because no pipeline connects Western producers to Eastern refineries, largely due to political and regulatory roadblocks.

Carney claims to support building a pipeline to Quebec, but that would require fast-tracking approvals and lifting the Trudeau-era emissions cap. This federal policy limits total emissions from the oil and gas sector, effectively capping production growth regardless of market demand or infrastructure needs.

After meeting Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on March 21, Carney told reporters: “The emissions cap is there for a reason… getting investment emissions down from the production to transmission of conventional oil and gas … the issue is getting investments down.” Translation: Don’t start ordering pipe just yet.

As a former oil and gas CEO, I spent 16 years trying to protect our industry from the first Trudeau. Then came Justin. Now we have Carney, and—as John Fogerty, the legendary frontman of Creedence Clearwater Revival, once put it—it’s “Déjà Vu All Over Again.”

On the clean energy front, Canada already leads. According to the Canadian Centre for Energy Information, 82 per cent of our electricity comes from non-emitting sources like hydro, wind, solar and nuclear. That makes us a clean energy superpower by any global standard. Carney should be thrilled, and taxpayers should be relieved.

But that’s not enough for the climate elite. Carney, like Trudeau, ultimately wants to eliminate fossil fuels.

Canadians have already endured a decade of net-zero policies: rising costs, stagnant productivity and GDP per capita that has collapsed to just 55 per cent of the U.S. level. Meanwhile, the national debt has doubled.

So what exactly has all this sacrifice accomplished?

China, India, Russia and the United States emit a combined 22,967 megatonnes of carbon annually. Canada emits just 575. If we shut down our entire economy tomorrow, those countries would make up the difference in nine days.

Pierre Poilievre promised to scrap the carbon tax and fast-track pipelines and LNG development. Instead, voters chose the GFANZ co-chair and UN climate envoy.

It’s going to be a long, difficult four years for a country blessed with some of the world’s greatest natural and human resources, yet determined to squander them.

Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who has been a director of five global corporations.