by Stephen Legault, Senior Manager, Alberta Energy Transition, Environmental Defence
Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – It doesn’t surprise us that Alberta and Canada have missed their April 1st deadline under their November 2025 MOU. The MOU was fatally flawed from the start, and the ill-conceived pipeline at the centre of the agreement will never be built.
The Alberta government and oil industry have demonstrated they are not good-faith partners in climate action. Hours after signing the MOU, Premier Smith began walking back carbon pricing commitments. She did the same thing on methane reduction by releasing weak draft regulations two days after signing an agreement in principle with the federal government. Similarly, oil companies have launched a full-court press against any limits to their activities.
A new oil pipeline to Canada’s west coast is fundamentally incompatible with climate science and would be an economic albatross that eliminates, rather than creates, jobs and prosperity. It is also vehemently opposed by Coastal First Nations. The emissions from a new pipeline would never be addressed by the Pathways CCS project.
The concessions Ottawa was seeking in exchange for dismantling climate progress are not materializing. Rolling back a decade of climate policy, weakening key energy transition regulations, and promising a costly, risky pipeline alongside increased oil production—all for the possibility of a stronger industrial carbon price—is not a “grand bargain.” It’s a bad deal, and it’s time to move on.
Canada risks being left behind in a rapidly electrifying world, where cheap wind, solar, geothermal energy and batteries are displacing expensive, polluting fossil fuels. Building expensive oil infrastructure now is economically reckless – taxpayers already bear over $36 billion in costs for the Trans Mountain expansion, more than $1,000 per Canadian.
The federal government does not need to sacrifice more climate policies at the behest of oil and gas companies or Premier Smith in order to ensure a fair industrial carbon price that drives emissions reductions. The constitutional authority of the federal government has already been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in respect to the industrial carbon pricing.
We call on the federal government to strengthen accountability for climate polluters through a stronger industrial carbon pricing system and strong, harmonized methane regulations across the country. The Government of Canada must also hold the line on the Clean Electricity Regulations by reinstating it immediately in Alberta, given that the conditions for removing it have not been met. Finally, Canada must abandon the fossil fantasy of a new oil pipeline, which is both economically and climatically disastrous.
Additional Information:
Why Pathways CCS Cannot Offset Pipeline Emissions https://environmentaldefence.ca/report/why-pathways-ccs-cannot-offset-pipeline-emissions/
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producer’s attacks on carbon pricing https://environmentaldefence.ca/report/no-grand-bargain-to-be-made/
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
– 30 –
For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Midhat Moini, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca
