Minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, on Friday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin declined Sunday to give a specific timeline for the removal of Canada’s cap on oil-and-gas emissions, but said Ottawa is working with urgency to meet conditions set out in last week’s federal budget for dispensing with that policy.
Ms. Dabrusin and Energy Minister Tim Hodgson met with reporters in Toronto to promote the federal government’s Climate Competitiveness Strategy, the budget’s environmental announcements.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget has tacked away from some of the key environmental initiatives of his predecessor.
Imposing greenhouse-gas emissions limits on Canada’s oil-and-gas industry was a major commitment former prime minister Justin Trudeau made in 2021 at COP26, the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.
However, Mr. Carney’s budget said that a cap would no longer be necessary if Ottawa manages to reduce pollution through other means, such as modernizing industrial carbon markets, regulations to reduce methane emissions, and carbon-capture technologies.
“The oil and gas cap, if all of those pieces are met, would not be needed any more,” Ms. Dabrusin said.
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Neither she nor Mr. Hodgson would say if it will be a matter of months or years before Canada meets the conditions to remove the cap.
“We absolutely need to continue to work with urgency and it’s an imperative … that is the way that I’m approaching it, that our government is approaching it,” Ms. Dabrusin said.
The government tabled draft greenhouse regulations at the end of last year. There were consultations and “we’re now reviewing the feedback that we received during that so that’s a process that’s ongoing,” she said.
Mr. Hodgson said that Ottawa wants to be “clarifying our regulations to reduce emissions, so the private sector can spend more time building good projects and less time navigating bureaucracy.”
The Energy Minister reiterated the budget’s emphasis on carbon pricing. “This is a system that works, delivering more emissions reductions than any other policy at the lowest possible cost,” he said.
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The government also wants to amend the “greenwashing” provisions in the Competition Act that required businesses to substantiate the benefits of their environmental initiatives.
“These ‘greenwashing’ provisions are creating investment uncertainty and having the opposite of the desired effect, with some parties slowing or reversing efforts to protect the environment,” the budget said.
Ms. Dabrusin is expected to lead Canada’s delegation to the COP30 climate conference, which starts Monday in Belém, Brazil.
Ottawa previously committed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
“We have targets in place. They’re ambitious. And Canadians are ambitious, that’s what they want to see from us,” the Environment Minister said when asked whether her government will stand by that emissions yardstick.
“It requires a stretch, but that is what we absolutely continue to do. This climate-competitiveness strategy is one of the tools to get there.”