The consumer carbon price is done.
The Conservatives have been clamouring to “axe the tax” for years. And with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberals have wisely disavowed the unpopular and confusing policy.
Abandoning carbon pricing is smart politics. But more importantly, it creates an opportunity to implement climate policies that can address the climate crisis while strengthening the economy and improving the daily lives of Canadians, but only if we act decisively.
Canada’s next prime minister must decide whether to continue our incremental approach to reducing greenhouse gases, or invest in true decarbonization. Continuing with the current basket of policies most likely means missing our 2030 emissions-reduction target. True decarbonization means increasing rapidly clean energy investments, reckoning with our status as an oil and gas producer, and investing in health care and education.
It also means investing in the workforce that will be the foundation of a decarbonized economy—manufacturing electric vehicles and renewable energy components, retrofitting and constructing green buildings, and expanding electrification.
Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer. Currently, we have no real game plan for what our economy will look like in the post fossil-fuel era. Of course, there’s no magic bullet, but there are important steps to be taken.