Mitchell Beer
May 1, 2025
With a cabinet to be appointed in the next two weeks, Parliament set to convene May 26, and a trip to Washington, DC on the agenda, Prime Minister Mark Carney is already facing high expectations—and the usual counter-pressures—for the energy and climate priorities his new government will set.
Tax cuts, interprovincial trade barriers, and trade and security negotiations with the Donald Trump administration figured prominently in the flurry of news coverage following Monday’s federal election. CBC and the Globe and Mail both say the government will deliver a Throne Speech and a budget—possibly just a mini-budget, one source told CBC—this spring.
“I would expect in this order: a swearing-in of the new ministry, a return of Parliament, potentially a short sitting, during which time there could be a budget, a small budget, a mini budget,” said Marci Surkes, a former senior advisor to the Trudeau government now serving as chief strategy officer at the Compass Rose consultancy, told CBC.
Speculation is beginning to build around possible cabinet appointments, with former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and Shannon Miedema, former environment and climate director at the Halifax Regional Municipality, on the Globe’s list of newly-elected MPs who might make the cut. Others include former Quebec finance minister Carlos Leitão, former Delta, B.C. Chamber of Commerce executive director Jill McKnight, and Nathalie Provost, the Quebec gun control advocate who survived the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989.
Dealing with Trump’s economic warfare and annexation threats tops the Globe’s list of eight “fateful issues” Carney will have to deal with. On Wednesday, Trump said Carney would be visiting the White House “within the next week or less,” CBC reports.
But the readout on the call from the Prime Minister’s Office makes no reference to timing. “The leaders agreed on the importance of Canada and the United States working together—as independent, sovereign nations—for their mutual betterment,” it states. “To that end, the leaders agreed to meet in person in the near future.”
Time to Pick a Lane
In the immediate aftermath of the election, climate organizations and the fossil lobby both said they looked forward to working with the new government. The Canadian Climate Institute welcomed Carney with a specific agenda for action.
“We urge the new federal government to act swiftly to strengthen industrial carbon pricing, implement methane regulations for the oil and gas sector, enact Canada’s Clean Electricity Tax Credit, and establish a made-in-Canada climate taxonomy for Canada’s financial sector,” wrote Institute President Rick Smith. “Decisive action on these priorities will accelerate low-carbon growth while enhancing Canada’s competitiveness and economic resilience.”
The costs of climate-related damages “are already driving up the cost of living for Canadians,” Smith added, and “our homes, communities and businesses are ill-equipped for a future of increasingly extreme weather.” But “smart action to address climate-related threats can help limit future damages, while keeping the cost of living down and supporting jobs and economic diversification.”
Climate Action Network Canada Executive Director Caroline Brouillette said Carney should “practice what he has preached” for years, citing his past role as United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance.
“That requires picking a lane with regard to energy: no more flirting with fossil fuel expansion and new pipelines, which would come with staggering costs to our wallets and our planet,” she told The Canadian Press. “Instead, the new federal government must focus its attention on building a renewable-powered electricity grid as the backbone of a new economy in line with Canadian values.”
Pembina Institute Executive Director Chris Severson-Baker pointed to electrification as the way to meet a “pivotal moment for Canada’s economic resilience and energy security,” CP writes. “This government —and everyone in Canada—has an opportunity to choose a pathway to long-term financial stability, secured global leadership, and increased well-being for all,” Severson-Baker said. “This pathway is
rooted in clean energy.”
“We trust that Mr. Carney knows full well that Canada’s economic future will be best secured by focusing on where the global energy system is going, not where it has been,” agreed Environmental Defence Canada Executive Director Tim Gray.
The new government is already getting a thumbs-up for its clean energy commitments from Morningstar, a financial services company with deep roots in the sector. The election result is “a positive for both stocks and the renewables sector in Canada, given Carney’s outspokenness on climate change and embracing the transition to net-zero emissions,” said Morningstar equity analyst Brett Castelli.
At a time when renewable energy stocks have been struggling, “the new government’s push for clean energy through increased subsidies and tighter emission caps is positive for renewable stocks,” Morningstar writes, while “the outlook for Canada’s conventional oil industry appears more uncertain.”
On LinkedIn, climate tech entrepreneur and author Nada Ahmed says she’s watching to see whether Carney’s past credentials will translate into real results.
“Nobody has transformed how finance sees climate change like Carney. While environmentalists faced resistance, he broke through using balance sheets and risk models,” she writes. “As the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, he pushed the world’s financial systems to wake up to climate risk.
He was the first central banker to say it clearly: climate change isn’t just an environmental problem, it’s a financial one. Ignore it, and markets, companies, and countries pay the price.”
Now, “Carney must manage Canada through Trump-era trade uncertainty while reimagining a resource-rich nation in transition, implementing climate policy while protecting Alberta’s economy,” she adds. “I’m watching to see if his financial expertise translates to political leadership. We have plenty of climate visionaries but few pragmatic implementers who understand markets and molecules.”
‘Future Hostile Acts’
Once the votes were counted, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wasted no time before demanding that Carney “reset the relationship” with the province and vowing to resist any “future hostile acts” by the new government.
During the campaign, Smith opened the relationship conversation with a list of what she called “non-negotiable” demands, Corporate Knights recalls. The nine-point list included scrapping the Trudeau government’s long-delayed oil and gas emissions cap, establishing a six-month timeline for review of new megaprojects, repealing the ban on oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s northern coast, ending the federal backstop for the industrial carbon price, and abandoning ambitious regulations to drive adoption of electric vehicles.
“These demands are unworkable for Carney given that they would take key climate and environmental protections out of federal hands, and would alienate parts of the Liberal base, especially in Quebec, where support for climate action remains high,” notes Corporate Knights correspondent Shawn McCarthy, an independent writer and senior counsel with Sussex Strategy Group.
But in a statement that congratulated Carney on his “minority government election victory” and praised defeated Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre as a “true friend of Alberta”, Smith invited Carney to improve Ottawa’s relations with Alberta by acceding to her demands.
“A large majority of Albertans are deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government,” she declared, after the Trudeau government bought taxpayers a $34.2-billion pipeline to help Alberta get its climate-busting product to market. “Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa.”
Oil and gas lobby groups largely struck a hopeful tone about the new government after Carney supported “energy corridors” and faster approval of both transmission lines and pipelines, and endorsed an eastbound pipeline to “displace imported oil” during a campaign stop in Alberta.
“A new federal government offers an opportunity to rejuvenate Canada’s economy and its approach to natural resource development,” said Lisa Baiton, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “With the global economic uncertainty being caused by actions in the United States, Canada has an opportunity to stand out as a stable, trusted trading partner.”
But as Trudeau-era cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson pointed out earlier this year, there’s no private sector proposal to build the pipeline the fossil lobby is demanding. “If there’s an economic case, you would assume there’s a proponent, and the proponent will build it,” he told CBC, in an interview that would have aired before Carney reappointed him to the energy and natural resources portfolio.
“People are jumping to a solution before they’ve actually talked through the challenges,” Wilkinson added. “One is, is there an economic case for such a pipeline? And the second is, is there a national security rationale?”
At least one incoming Liberal caucus member, Calgary Confederation MP-elect Corey Hogan, is planning to step into that conversation, CTV News reports.
“We want to make sure that the policy intent of the government is well understood by industry and industry’s concerns are well understood by government,” Hogan said. “There wasn’t a major pipeline project in the past 15 years that I wasn’t a part of—I was involved in Northern Gateway, Energy East, TMX [the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion] and KXL [the Keystone XL pipeline] to a lesser extent. With that first-hand knowledge, I can speak to both sides and we can bridge that gap a bit.”
‘Focused on the Future’
But in the hours after the election, CBC cited oilpatch sources who were frustrated with the election result and skeptical about Carney’s plans, with 73% of respondents to an ATB Capital Markets survey saying a minority Liberal government “would be negative toward their willingness to invest” in Canada’s fossil fuel sector.
“It’s very challenging for us in Western Canada and especially when you work in the energy sector, to bring them back into power again,” said Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim.
“There is a general sense of unease in terms of how the Liberals will move forward on an agenda that we know is very important to Alberta,” agreed Calgary Chamber of Commerce President Deborah Yedlin. “There’s so much at stake right now. We can’t afford to trip. We must make sure that we’re focused on the future.”
In his welcome message to Carney, Canadian Climate Institute President Rick Smith did exactly that, though not quite with the priorities Yedlin may have had in mind.
“Accelerating Canada’s progress on climate change is an economic imperative in this time of global economic upheaval and uncertainty,” Smith wrote. “Canada has an opportunity to act on climate change in ways that grow our economy and support Canadian innovation, invest in our communities, capitalize on our competitive advantages, and expand our trade horizons. Faced with ongoing aggression from the U.S. and efforts to hobble U.S. clean energy innovation and climate research, implementing cost-effective, Canadian-made climate solutions are an important tool to support Canadian workers, protect communities, and strengthen our economy.”
May 1, 2025
With a cabinet to be appointed in the next two weeks, Parliament set to convene May 26, and a trip to Washington, DC on the agenda, Prime Minister Mark Carney is already facing high expectations—and the usual counter-pressures—for the energy and climate priorities his new government will set.
Tax cuts, interprovincial trade barriers, and trade and security negotiations with the Donald Trump administration figured prominently in the flurry of news coverage following Monday’s federal election. CBC and the Globe and Mail both say the government will deliver a Throne Speech and a budget—possibly just a mini-budget, one source told CBC—this spring.
“I would expect in this order: a swearing-in of the new ministry, a return of Parliament, potentially a short sitting, during which time there could be a budget, a small budget, a mini budget,” said Marci Surkes, a former senior advisor to the Trudeau government now serving as chief strategy officer at the Compass Rose consultancy, told CBC.
Speculation is beginning to build around possible cabinet appointments, with former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and Shannon Miedema, former environment and climate director at the Halifax Regional Municipality, on the Globe’s list of newly-elected MPs who might make the cut. Others include former Quebec finance minister Carlos Leitão, former Delta, B.C. Chamber of Commerce executive director Jill McKnight, and Nathalie Provost, the Quebec gun control advocate who survived the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989.
Dealing with Trump’s economic warfare and annexation threats tops the Globe’s list of eight “fateful issues” Carney will have to deal with. On Wednesday, Trump said Carney would be visiting the White House “within the next week or less,” CBC reports.
But the readout on the call from the Prime Minister’s Office makes no reference to timing. “The leaders agreed on the importance of Canada and the United States working together—as independent, sovereign nations—for their mutual betterment,” it states. “To that end, the leaders agreed to meet in person in the near future.”
Time to Pick a Lane
In the immediate aftermath of the election, climate organizations and the fossil lobby both said they looked forward to working with the new government. The Canadian Climate Institute welcomed Carney with a specific agenda for action.
“We urge the new federal government to act swiftly to strengthen industrial carbon pricing, implement methane regulations for the oil and gas sector, enact Canada’s Clean Electricity Tax Credit, and establish a made-in-Canada climate taxonomy for Canada’s financial sector,” wrote Institute President Rick Smith. “Decisive action on these priorities will accelerate low-carbon growth while enhancing Canada’s competitiveness and economic resilience.”
The costs of climate-related damages “are already driving up the cost of living for Canadians,” Smith added, and “our homes, communities and businesses are ill-equipped for a future of increasingly extreme weather.” But “smart action to address climate-related threats can help limit future damages, while keeping the cost of living down and supporting jobs and economic diversification.”
Climate Action Network Canada Executive Director Caroline Brouillette said Carney should “practice what he has preached” for years, citing his past role as United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance.
“That requires picking a lane with regard to energy: no more flirting with fossil fuel expansion and new pipelines, which would come with staggering costs to our wallets and our planet,” she told The Canadian Press. “Instead, the new federal government must focus its attention on building a renewable-powered electricity grid as the backbone of a new economy in line with Canadian values.”
Pembina Institute Executive Director Chris Severson-Baker pointed to electrification as the way to meet a “pivotal moment for Canada’s economic resilience and energy security,” CP writes. “This government —and everyone in Canada—has an opportunity to choose a pathway to long-term financial stability, secured global leadership, and increased well-being for all,” Severson-Baker said. “This pathway is
rooted in clean energy.”
“We trust that Mr. Carney knows full well that Canada’s economic future will be best secured by focusing on where the global energy system is going, not where it has been,” agreed Environmental Defence Canada Executive Director Tim Gray.
The new government is already getting a thumbs-up for its clean energy commitments from Morningstar, a financial services company with deep roots in the sector. The election result is “a positive for both stocks and the renewables sector in Canada, given Carney’s outspokenness on climate change and embracing the transition to net-zero emissions,” said Morningstar equity analyst Brett Castelli.
At a time when renewable energy stocks have been struggling, “the new government’s push for clean energy through increased subsidies and tighter emission caps is positive for renewable stocks,” Morningstar writes, while “the outlook for Canada’s conventional oil industry appears more uncertain.”
On LinkedIn, climate tech entrepreneur and author Nada Ahmed says she’s watching to see whether Carney’s past credentials will translate into real results.
“Nobody has transformed how finance sees climate change like Carney. While environmentalists faced resistance, he broke through using balance sheets and risk models,” she writes. “As the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, he pushed the world’s financial systems to wake up to climate risk.
He was the first central banker to say it clearly: climate change isn’t just an environmental problem, it’s a financial one. Ignore it, and markets, companies, and countries pay the price.”
Now, “Carney must manage Canada through Trump-era trade uncertainty while reimagining a resource-rich nation in transition, implementing climate policy while protecting Alberta’s economy,” she adds. “I’m watching to see if his financial expertise translates to political leadership. We have plenty of climate visionaries but few pragmatic implementers who understand markets and molecules.”
‘Future Hostile Acts’
Once the votes were counted, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wasted no time before demanding that Carney “reset the relationship” with the province and vowing to resist any “future hostile acts” by the new government.
During the campaign, Smith opened the relationship conversation with a list of what she called “non-negotiable” demands, Corporate Knights recalls. The nine-point list included scrapping the Trudeau government’s long-delayed oil and gas emissions cap, establishing a six-month timeline for review of new megaprojects, repealing the ban on oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s northern coast, ending the federal backstop for the industrial carbon price, and abandoning ambitious regulations to drive adoption of electric vehicles.
“These demands are unworkable for Carney given that they would take key climate and environmental protections out of federal hands, and would alienate parts of the Liberal base, especially in Quebec, where support for climate action remains high,” notes Corporate Knights correspondent Shawn McCarthy, an independent writer and senior counsel with Sussex Strategy Group.
But in a statement that congratulated Carney on his “minority government election victory” and praised defeated Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre as a “true friend of Alberta”, Smith invited Carney to improve Ottawa’s relations with Alberta by acceding to her demands.
“A large majority of Albertans are deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government,” she declared, after the Trudeau government bought taxpayers a $34.2-billion pipeline to help Alberta get its climate-busting product to market. “Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa.”
Oil and gas lobby groups largely struck a hopeful tone about the new government after Carney supported “energy corridors” and faster approval of both transmission lines and pipelines, and endorsed an eastbound pipeline to “displace imported oil” during a campaign stop in Alberta.
“A new federal government offers an opportunity to rejuvenate Canada’s economy and its approach to natural resource development,” said Lisa Baiton, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “With the global economic uncertainty being caused by actions in the United States, Canada has an opportunity to stand out as a stable, trusted trading partner.”
But as Trudeau-era cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson pointed out earlier this year, there’s no private sector proposal to build the pipeline the fossil lobby is demanding. “If there’s an economic case, you would assume there’s a proponent, and the proponent will build it,” he told CBC, in an interview that would have aired before Carney reappointed him to the energy and natural resources portfolio.
“People are jumping to a solution before they’ve actually talked through the challenges,” Wilkinson added. “One is, is there an economic case for such a pipeline? And the second is, is there a national security rationale?”
At least one incoming Liberal caucus member, Calgary Confederation MP-elect Corey Hogan, is planning to step into that conversation, CTV News reports.
“We want to make sure that the policy intent of the government is well understood by industry and industry’s concerns are well understood by government,” Hogan said. “There wasn’t a major pipeline project in the past 15 years that I wasn’t a part of—I was involved in Northern Gateway, Energy East, TMX [the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion] and KXL [the Keystone XL pipeline] to a lesser extent. With that first-hand knowledge, I can speak to both sides and we can bridge that gap a bit.”
‘Focused on the Future’
But in the hours after the election, CBC cited oilpatch sources who were frustrated with the election result and skeptical about Carney’s plans, with 73% of respondents to an ATB Capital Markets survey saying a minority Liberal government “would be negative toward their willingness to invest” in Canada’s fossil fuel sector.
“It’s very challenging for us in Western Canada and especially when you work in the energy sector, to bring them back into power again,” said Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim.
“There is a general sense of unease in terms of how the Liberals will move forward on an agenda that we know is very important to Alberta,” agreed Calgary Chamber of Commerce President Deborah Yedlin. “There’s so much at stake right now. We can’t afford to trip. We must make sure that we’re focused on the future.”
In his welcome message to Carney, Canadian Climate Institute President Rick Smith did exactly that, though not quite with the priorities Yedlin may have had in mind.
“Accelerating Canada’s progress on climate change is an economic imperative in this time of global economic upheaval and uncertainty,” Smith wrote. “Canada has an opportunity to act on climate change in ways that grow our economy and support Canadian innovation, invest in our communities, capitalize on our competitive advantages, and expand our trade horizons. Faced with ongoing aggression from the U.S. and efforts to hobble U.S. clean energy innovation and climate research, implementing cost-effective, Canadian-made climate solutions are an important tool to support Canadian workers, protect communities, and strengthen our economy.”
Pick a Lane, Practice What You’ve Preached, Climate Analysts and Advocates Urge Carney
With a cabinet to be appointed in the next two weeks, Parliament set to convene May 26, and a trip to Washington, DC on the agenda, Prime Minister Mark Carney is already facing high expectations—and the usual counter-pressures—for the energy and climate priorities his new government will set.
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