{"id":682153,"date":"2026-05-20T15:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/682153\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:29:12","slug":"feds-didnt-push-carbon-price-backstop-in-alberta-in-show-of-co-operation-dabrusin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/682153\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds didn\u2019t push carbon price backstop in Alberta in show of co-operation: Dabrusin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government didn\u2019t enforce the federal standard on Alberta\u2019s industrial carbon price<\/a> as a gesture of co-operation with the province, Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFighting with our provinces, being tied up in courts \u2026 we\u2019re working to be in really a true co-operative federalism,\u201d Dabrusin told The Canadian Press when asked why Ottawa didn\u2019t enforce the federal backstop on Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing that makes us stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa allows provinces and territories to create their own carbon pricing systems. But if those programs don\u2019t meet a federal standard, Ottawa can impose the federal backstop instead.<\/p>\n

Right now, only\u00a0Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Nunavut use the federal backstop.<\/p>\n

Alberta implemented sweeping changes to its industrial carbon price program in December, which tanked the market price of carbon credits in the province to as low as $17 per tonne.<\/p>\n

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The changes allowed companies to avoid paying provincial fees for emissions by investing in their own emissions reduction projects instead, and allowed smaller companies that didn\u2019t meet the program\u2019s minimum emissions threshold to opt out of the carbon pricing system.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed an agreement on Friday to bring Alberta\u2019s effective carbon price \u2014 the market price for credits \u2014 to $130 per tonne by 2040, while the headline price in Alberta would also reach $100 per tonne by 2027, before rising to $130 per tonne by 2035.<\/p>\n

The difference between the effective carbon price and the headline price is in the way companies accumulate credits to comply with their emission limits.<\/p>\n

And as Prime Minister Mark Carney has clawed back most of the Trudeau-era climate policies, the cornerstone of his government\u2019s commitment to reducing emissions has become a \u201cstrengthened\u201d industrial carbon price.<\/p>\n

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Though the timeline set out in the headline price of the Alberta deal was more lenient than Ottawa\u2019s federal backstop, it will have ripple effects across the country for the provinces following Ottawa\u2019s benchmark.<\/p>\n

Following Friday\u2019s announcement, the federal government quietly updated its headline price trajectory for all industrial carbon pricing systems in Canada, matching the schedule in the Alberta deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new trajectory will be part of a full, updated federal benchmark that will be published later in 2026,\u201d the updated web page reads.<\/p>\n

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Ottawa is selling Alberta\u2019s new carbon price structure as a stronger model because of the impact it will have on the province\u2019s credit market \u2014 despite choosing not to enforce the backstop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually have a path to an effective industrial carbon price that would be regulated by Alberta, and that actually has a guarantee that\u2019s matched by the federal government and the government of Alberta to ensure that it meets that effective industrial carbon price,\u201d Dabrusin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a strong and credible price that is predictable for industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Bernstein, CEO of Clean Prosperity Canada, said the new deal is stronger in reality but also weaker than what had been contemplated on paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it really comes down to, how confident were you that the theoretical plan was actually going to work in practice? And I don\u2019t think it was going to work,\u201d Bernstein told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I come out in the end saying this is progress, albeit modest progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernstein said Ottawa\u2019s approach of working collaboratively with Alberta was the right one.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat is the way we can actually get enduring policy that will send the certainty to the market that\u2019s needed over many decades to get investment in decarbonization project,\u201d said Bernstein, who is also a member of the government\u2019s independent Net-Zero Advisory Body.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile in theory, and I guess it is true that the federal government legally had some grounds to try to challenge or try to replace the Alberta system with its own, I think in practice that would have been incredibly difficult and not very desirable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other climate groups still aren\u2019t sold on the new plan.<\/p>\n

Environmental Defence, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation and Greenpeace put out statements Friday calling the Alberta deal a \u201cweakening\u201d and \u201cgutting\u201d of Canada\u2019s industrial carbon price system.<\/p>\n

Simon Donner is climate scientist and professor at the University of British Columbia, and the former chair of the Net-Zero Advisory Body.<\/p>\n

He said the new carbon pricing plan in Alberta is disappointing because the government had signalled it intended to reinforce the industrial carbon pricing system amid all its other climate clawbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe argument was the industrial pricing system is the thing we need to save. And even if we lose a lot of other things, as long as we save the industrial pricing system, we\u2019ll be able to tackle the sectors that are the biggest sources of emissions,\u201d Donner told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is like removing the final pieces of brick from the foundation of the house. And so it\u2019s disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Donner agreed Ottawa is in for a tough legal fight because the provinces have the right to challenge federal policies which affect resource production, he said Carney still created a carveout for one province. He pointed out that the prime minister\u2019s predecessor Justin Trudeau was criticized for doing the same thing by exempting home heating oil in Atlantic Canada from carbon pricing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have trouble making sense of the argument that this is the best deal we could get, so we should be happy with it,\u201d Donner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be OK with that if this wasn\u2019t going to affect how the system worked outside of Alberta \u2026 Because when you add it all up together, the emissions math of this just doesn\u2019t work well. And so then I\u2019m not sure what they\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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