Shawn McCarthy is a senior counsel at Sussex Strategy and a former national business reporter covering global energy for The Globe and Mail. He's also the past president of the World Press Freedom Canada, a volunteer advocacy group based in Ottawa.
To meet its professed energy and climate goals, the Liberal government will have to show the level determination and urgency in its electrification efforts as it does for expanding oil and gas production and exports.
The investment deals are only part of the story. Canada needs a robust regulatory and policy approach that will enable the country to transition to cleaner energy sources while protecting land, water, and at-risk species.
Canada should look to diversify export markets, and also aggressively pursue the energy transition as the U.S. president preaches continued reliance on hemispheric reserves of carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
In the longer term, real energy security cannot come from an environmentally unsustainable source. Doubling down on EV adoption would significantly lessen Ontario’s vulnerability to volatile oil markets while contributing to Canada’s climate change goals.
One of the toughest political challenges involves the transportation of highly radioactive nuclear waste some 2,500 kilometres through towns and First Nations communities to a proposed storage site in northwestern Ontario.
Ottawa and Alberta are working to finalize an equivalency agreement that would exempt the industry from federal methane rules and instead enforce Alberta’s regulations.
We don’t need Band-Aid solutions for bleeding consumers, but a long-term strategy to encourage investment that marries real energy security, environmental benefits, and less exposure to volatile global energy prices.
You can’t leave an ‘all-of-society’ effort in the hands of the disparate decision-makers in that society. Mark Carney must show leadership with the provinces, municipalities, and the private sector to understand the value of nature and incorporate its protection in economic decisions.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cautious tone is a clear indication of the fraught path ahead as he seeks to lessen economic dependence on the United States, increase trade ties with Asia, and avoid further confrontation with an unpredictable and combative Donald Trump.
The Trump doctrine essentially portrays Canada as vassal state to American ‘pre-eminence’ in the hemisphere. Canada, Mexico and other nations of the Americas are expected to pursue their national interest—just as the U.S. does—but will pay a stiff price if their strategies do not align with MAGA America.
While Mark Carney’s public pledge on Paris obligations is welcome, it brings to mind the old saying about the road to hell being paid with good intentions.
It’s time for Mark Carney to recapture that mojo that transformed him from a grey banker to an internationally renown climate champion. Not to burnish his own reputation, but to secure a better future for all of us.
As we stand at the threshold of the AI Age, Canadian policymakers and citizens must ask: What kind of press do we want? And what kind of democracy can we keep?
While approximately 70 per cent of the project’s cost overruns will be borne by Trans Mountain, the remaining third—more than $9-billion—is considered ‘uncapped costs’ which increase tolls based on a formula agreed to by shippers and approved by the Canada Energy Regulator more than a decade ago.
Clean-energy projects—building out the grid, supporting renewable and other clean-tech investment, and financing efficiency—can deliver on affordability, growth, and sustainability goals. Carney and his key ministers should keep a copy of Value(s) by their bedsides.
It will take enormous commitment and discipline to meet the bold promise of making Canada a clean energy superpower—traits that have not yet been demonstrated on the clean energy and climate file.
