The Alberta NDP leader also did not say what course he would take on consumer carbon pricing after B.C. and federal NDP leaders recently backed away from supporting the policy
In his first address to Calgary’s business community as Alberta NDP leader, Naheed Nenshi on Tuesday criticized several proposed federal energy and emissions-reduction policies while steering away from making firm policy commitments.
The former Calgary mayor also hedged on whether an Alberta NDP government would implement a consumer carbon price after his federal and British Columbia New Democrat counterparts signalled over the past week that they no longer support the current version of the policy.
Nenshi said the federal government is “fundamentally wrong in what they’re putting forward” and the provision is “against freedom of speech and expression.”
“We’re going to have a big problem with that emissions cap in the fall simply because the (provincial) government has not made the case to the feds on an emissions cap that does work,” Nenshi said.
Calgary Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Deborah Yedlin said there are many conversations around energy policy that happen out of the public domain.
“There are conversations taking place to try and find a way forward to address some of the policies and legislation that’s in front of us that could be very detrimental to the energy sector.”
Nenshi non-committal on carbon tax: ‘It’s very hard to say right now’
Nenshi said he agrees with Eby’s position that a final decision on the consumer carbon price is for the federal government; however, he said the province’s decision will largely depend on the federal government of the day’s overall climate plan, should the NDP be elected to power in the fall of 2027.
“In our case, three years from now, if we have a (federal) Conservative government, we have to look carefully at their emissions-reductions plans, see how they sync with Alberta’s emissions-reductions plans, and make a plan based on that,” he said.
“But given that the federal Conservatives haven’t given us an inkling of what their climate plan is, it’s very hard to say right now.”
The federal government has two carbon pricing regimes — one aimed at individual consumers and the other for heavy industry. Provinces are free to create their own programs as long as they meet the federal government’s criteria. Alberta has its own industrial carbon pricing regime called the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulation, which imposes a gradually increasing price for carbon emissions above a certain level.
Consumers receive a carbon rebate every quarter to offset the cost.
On general matters of policy, Nenshi acknowledged his lack of specificity on items he will bring forward to the business community.
“The reason that I’m not being unbelievably specific about this right now is I’ve been out of the game for a couple years,” he said. “My real goal is to hear from all of you about precisely what you mean and what kind of government would make sense for you.”