• Carney keeping cap on Alberta’s oil and gas sector
• PBO: Energy cap costing $20 billion

LETHBRIDGE, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the Carney government to remove its cap from Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

“Taxpayers are already losing out on billions of dollars in savings per year because Canada doesn’t have a fully functioning pipeline network, thanks to Ottawa hitting Alberta with laws such as Bill C-69,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director for the CTF. “Choking Alberta’s energy sector right when we need to become more energy independent in the middle of a tariff war with the United States is the wrong way to go.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minister of the environment, Terry Duguid, said the Ottawa imposed cap on Alberta’s oil and gas will remain in place under Carney.

“We want that energy – what we don’t want is that pollution,” Duguid said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently issued a report showing the costs of Ottawa’s cap on Canadian energy.

The PBO report shows the cap will cost the Canadian economy $20.5 billion and slash more than 40,000 Canadian jobs.

• “PBO estimates that the required reduction in upstream oil and gas sector production levels will lower real gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada by 0.39 per cent in 2032 and reduce nominal GDP by $20.5 billion. PBO estimates that achieving the legal upper bound will reduce economy-wide employment in Canada by 40,300 jobs and full-time equivalents by 54,400 in 2032.” – Impact Assessment of the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap.

“The Carney government’s cap on Alberta’s oil and gas sector will cost Canada billions of dollars and slash tens of thousands of jobs – it’s exactly the opposite of what Canada needs,” said Sims. “It’s shocking that Carney can sit down with Premier Danielle Smith, hear exactly why he should stop hamstringing our energy sector and he responds by doubling down on the damaging policy.”

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