“Net-Zero Tyranny”

There was a striking story which was buried in the news cycle in Canada by reports of the new Carney-Smith Memorandum of Understanding. While Canadians were being told to celebrate an agreement that might — might — allow a pipeline to begin construction in the fall of 2027, the United Arab Emirates announced plans for a new pipeline that will be fully operational around the same time.

Let that land for a moment. A desert nation with roughly a quarter of our GDP is completing pipeline infrastructure on a timeline that Canada can only hope to begin breaking ground on.

Casual international observers would be forgiven for assuming Canada is in the comforting hands of a climate champ. After all, while climate policy rollbacks reign supreme in Donald Trump’s America, Canada is now led by a man who, while serving as governor of the Bank of England, delivered a celebrated 2015 speech, “Breaking the tragedy of the horizon”, warning the global investment community of the financial risks of climate change; who went on to serve as UN special envoy for climate action and finance; and whose 2022 book Value(s) had much to say about the “existential threat” of climate change. A man who recently dazzled the world with his Davos speech on how middle powers can stand up to global bullies.

Look, we get it. Next to the US president, Carney seems so debonair, thoughtful and calm – a lifeline of stability in a volatile new world.

Building at speeds not seen in generations, as per Mark Carney’s oft-repeated election pledge, has been less hypersonic than the prime minister might have wished.

As the new parliamentary budget officer pointed out last week in an analysis of the spring fiscal update, only two of 15 projects being overseen by Carney’s Major Projects Office are actually under construction, and the two largest have yet to reach a final investment decision.

Part of the problem remains regulatory uncertainty, and that was the subject of a discussion paper issued by the government on Friday. That sounds of little consequence, but it could prove seismic.

CALGARY — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has committed $180 million in taxpayer money to a World Bank climate initiative aimed at accelerating the global transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy and addressing “gender equality gaps” in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

According to the federal government’s grants and contributions website, the funding was provided to the World Bank through the “World Bank Clean Energy and SIDS Resilience Facility (CESR).”

(Incognito)

OTTAWA – More Canadians now say economic growth should be a bigger priority in Canada’s energy policy than protecting the environment, a new Angus Reid Institute report suggests.

The pollster released a report today that suggests 61 per cent of Canadians now see economic growth as the biggest priority in energy policy.

That’s a shift in public opinion since seven years ago, when the same question had 55 per cent of Canadians saying that the environment should be the top priority in energy policy.

And Carney is just the man to lie to your face about it.

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Once again, war in the Middle East is destabilizing global energy markets, increasing energy costs (including at the pumps) and threatening Canada’s already fragile economy.

Yet at a moment when policymakers should do everything possible to unlock Canada’s economic potential, the Carney government is doubling down on the Trudeau-era industrial carbon tax, which further raises energy costs, dampens investment and job growth — and all for negligible environmental benefits.