Canadian PM Carney Hits Bump in Road with Carbon Tax Plans in Alberta
Alb-Exit? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith freezes industrial carbon tax as secession referendum is being promoted.
While the people of Canada decided to vote “anti-Trump” and elect globalist progressive Mark Carney into the nation’s top office, it must be noted that the Western Provinces went the other way.
For example, the people of Alberta overwhelmingly voted for the Conservative Party. The Conservatives secured 34 out of Alberta’s 37 seats in the House of Commons, representing 92% of the province’s representation in Ottawa.
Therefore, when Canada’s climate cultist leader decided to raise the carbon tax on the fossil-fuel-rich region imperially, he hit a bump in the road with the regional premier.
Alberta is freezing its industrial carbon tax in a bid to help companies struggling with the effects of U.S. tariffs, potentially setting up a challenge to the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Canada’s top oil-producing province will keep the tax at $95 per metric ton for an indefinite time, officials said at a press conference Monday. The levy had been scheduled to rise to $110 per metric ton next year and to $170 by 2030, according to federal rules that govern the provincial carbon tax levels.
The move by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has the potential to cause a clash with Carney, who has said he wants to keep the industrial carbon tax despite eliminating the consumer levy. Smith, a conservative who has been leading the province since 2022, has fought with the government in Ottawa over matters that affect its massive oil industry, which produces the bulk of the country’s crude.
“We are providing certainty, stability, and economic relief to the businesses that contribute so much to all of Canada,” Smith said at the press conference.
Many Canadians hope this is a beginning.
Danielle Smith just froze Alberta’s industrial carbon tax at $95/ton.
Ottawa wants to jack it to $170 in 5 years.Good move—but let’s be clear:
Freezing isn’t enough.
This whole carbon pricing racket needs to be torched, not tweaked.This is just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/qcxVz0Hhdk
— Marc Nixon (@MarcNixon24) May 12, 2025
Alberta industries are tired of their coffers being sacrificed on the altar of Canadian socialist schemes. Smith’s freeze is supported by major industry groups, such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Pathways Alliance, who argue that the current federal carbon pricing framework disadvantages Canadian producers relative to international competitors.
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president Lisa Baiton said she supports Alberta’s freeze and called on the federal government to fully reset its carbon regulatory scheme.
“Changes are necessary to establish a long-term signal to lock in investments and to reduce emissions, while remaining globally competitive,” Baiton said in a statement.
The president of Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canada’s largest oilsands companies, said Canada’s carbon pricing system puts industry at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with companies in other jurisdictions.
“This announcement signals recognition of the pressures on our sector’s competitiveness,” president Kendall Dilling said in an email.
It must also be noted that Alberta’s secession movement, advocating for the province to separate from Canada and become an independent country, has gained renewed momentum since Carney’s election.
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a leading separatist group, has drafted a referendum question: “Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?” The group plans to formally petition for a referendum once it secures 600,000 signatures (a figure far exceeding the 177,000 required by new provincial legislation).
That’s more than triple the number of signatures the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) would need under a new United Conservative Party government bill that makes it much easier to force a referendum on the ballot.
The group also said it would push Premier Danielle Smith to allow a separation referendum later in 2025, instead of next year as she’s suggested. They said a critical mass of separatist UCP members can persuade the premier to fast-track the referendum — and to join their cause as well.
At a news conference, APP lawyer Jeffrey Rath pulled a blue provincial flag off an easel to reveal the independence referendum question: “Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?”
He touted this ballot question as far clearer than the one Quebec put forth in its 1995 secession referendum.
“This is as serious as a heart attack,” Rath said. “And this is what Albertans expect.”
In the interest of completeness, I will also note that in the adjacent province, the vast majority of voters in Saskatchewan chose the Conservative Party (13 of the 14 federal ridings). However, Saskatchewan’s relationship with Ottawa isn’t in as much “flux” right now.
However, things must be simmering. Carney plans on meeting with country’s provincial premiers in Saskatchewan soon, in response to the frustrations with Ottawa among its western leaders.
After Ontario Premier Doug Ford first told reporters about the upcoming meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Carney will travel to Saskatoon June 2 for a face-to-face meeting.
Ford, who took part in a conference call with Carney and the other premiers Wednesday, called the field trip meeting an “olive branch” to the West and a step in uniting the country.
“I said it is time that your government starts showing some love to Saskatchewan and Alberta because as I said, the last prime minister showed no love,” Ford said.
“They have been treated terribly, to be very frank, and I think the new prime minister understands that and he will be out there having a great conversation.”
Alb-Exit? https://t.co/dtGL53ugV7
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) May 13, 2025
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Comments
Alberta should secede from Canada, and then price the oil it sells to Canada as it would have been priced if Alberta had remained part of Canada and its oil had been subject to the carbon tax. Canada shouldn’t be allowed to benefit from cheap oil from Alberta after having driven Alberta to secession.
Alberta should secede and then refuse to sell oil to the rest of Canada or sell it at an inflated price. They should sell it to US and we should return to building the pipeline that the progressives in their stupidity stopped.
The one potential issue is the type of oil they have. Isn’t oil sands? I don’t know about types and graded of oil and what is used for what.
Bottom line: Canada wants to be carbon free – let’s help them!
Oil sands are known as heavy bitumen. Generally, they require being heated up so that you can flow them in a pipeline or you have to process them on site.
A sufficiently advanced Refinery can make even light distillates like gasoline out of heavy bitumen although it’s also very good for things like tar, asphalt and diesel.
Once you get to diesel, you are well into high value products. I note of equal importance is Alberta’s natural gas. Without Alberta, Canada is in deep trouble.
Then they’d have to police their customers to make sure it didn’t get arbitraged right back to Canada.
That;s okay. Still a higher price for Canada.
How long with the public tolerate this fleecing on the basis of the climate fraud? I know people en masse can be stupid but enough is enough with this nonsense already.
It’s not that the public tolerates it, it’s that there’s a sufficiently large section of the public that’s been convinced that it’s desirable, and they win elections, sometimes for POTUS, and regularly in certain States (such as along the Left Coast). The other half of the population doesn’t have much choice, except to move to a more sensible State, but then they still have presidential elections to contend with.
“While the people of Canada decided to vote “anti-Trump” and elect globalist progressive Mark Carney into the nation’s top office, it must be noted that the Western Provinces went the other way.”
Even BC?
Probably not BC. Washington/Oregon illness there.
Mad COW disease.
California, Oregon, Washington.
LOL! The “mad” part is redundant though….
Oh this is interesting.
Liberal went from 14 to 20 seats
Conservatives went from 14 to 19 sets
New Democrats went from 12 to 3
Government was Liberals + New Democrats.
BC has become a province of China. Hong Kong money came in and real Canadians have been priced out of living in what is now known as Hongcouver.
My guess is right along the coast its like that. Further inland you go more conservative it gets.
The same with California. I don’t know a lot about Washington, but I know that you get east of the Oregon coast and it becomes very conservative.
With the exception of Spokane (and possibly Yakima) that’s true of WA too.
I read elsewhere that the Western provinces don’t consider BC “west,” geography nothwithstanding.
Secession is highly overrated. I can’t remember the last time there was one in an industrialized nation. It does focus the issues that are front and center in the seceding entity.
BREXIT.
I don’t think that secession will happen and I don’t believe that Alberta could survive as an independent country. I also don’t feel that either Alberta nor the U.S. are really all that enthusiastic about Alberta becoming “The 51st State” .
However I do believe that the indication of discontent the secession threat signals will force the Canadian government to modify its stance on some important matters in order to placate the province. Certainly the whole virtue-signaling save-the-planet plan becomes futile if the U.S. isn’t playing along. The economic costs of handicapping Canadian industries and consumers while the U.S. goes full-capitalist would be too devastating to a country whose currency is already 70¢ on the dollar to the U.S.
In this case, you definitely be correct. First of all they would be landlocked. Which means they would have to pay the pass through somebody else’s territory to get anything to market. Their best route is South through the United States which is what they generally do now anyhow. The British Columbian certainly would owe them nothing and the rest of Canada would have a lot of grievance because if you cut out one of those Prairie Provinces you basically just destroyed the entire country. Most of the infrastructure is quite close to the American Border
Alberta secession talk is interesting b/c they could probably it work on their own. Add Saskatchewan the NW Territory and Yukon and things get very intriguing. A bifurcated Canada offers up the intriguing possibility of some US States/portions of US.States joining them in a sort of East Canada/West Canada maybe even Central Canada. Given the political tensions here it might be the best course.