Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi MP Sophie Chatel says Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney’s environmental plan has her vote as she continues to throw her support behind the former Bank of Canada governor.
Chatel comes from a background working with carbon pricing adjustments with the United Nations and environmental taxation at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which she says has set her up to explore how she could secure the ecological infrastructure in her riding.
As an environmental advocate, Chatel said Carney’s plan for addressing climate change is one of the main reasons she has chosen to endorse him in the leadership race. In 2022, she was working on studying sustainable finance, and said Carney “helped me understand a little bit deeper.”
“In the course of those discussions, I realized how clear-minded and visionary he is about how to ensure that the Canadian economy both gets green and prosperous at the same time,” she told iPolitics.
At an event in Halifax Friday morning, Carney said he is backing away from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s consumer carbon pricing regime but will keep industrial pricing in place.
Carney said the country has become divided over the policy because Canadians have been fed “misinformation” by Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre.
He said his plan would include financial incentives for purchases of more energy-efficient appliances and electric vehicles, as well as improvements for home insulation, and would have big pollutors help cover the cost.
Carney, who has spent the last several years as a United Nations special envoy for climate action, has her full support, especially for his promises in “more investment in clean energy, clean technology”, she said.
Carney’s plan to implement a carbon pricing adjustment at the border will “ensure than [Canadian] companies make an effort to get decarbonized and actually remain competitive in our market,” she said.
She also voiced support for Carney’s plan to help businesses make sustainable investments and his ideas for changes to the carbon pricing model.
Carbon pricing has been in place since 2019 and charges $80 per tonne of emissions.
It has two portions. The first is the industrial system, which charges a price on emissions from large polluters like oilsands mines, auto factories and steel manufacturers.
The consumer portion is charged on the purchase price of 22 types of fuel bought by individual consumers or smaller businesses and non-profit entities like schools and hospitals. It adds about 17.6 cents to a litre of gasoline and 15 cents to a cubic metre of natural gas.
While the government compensates Canadians for the consumer cost with quarterly rebates, the policy has never been that popular – and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has made “axing” it the centrepiece of his pitch to Canadians.
“I understand, like [Carney], that it has become a controversy,” she said. As a Quebec MP, Chatel said there has been less controversy in her ridinge because the federal carbon pricing system doesn’t apply to Quebec; the province has its own carbon tax system.
“But it’s great news for Quebec because we will have more investment into for consumers, for electric vehicles, for energy efficient appliances and for making your home more energy efficient as well,” she explained. “So Quebec didn’t have a rebate, so they’re not losing any rebate, but they gain grants for for making their home and their transportation greener.
She said she looks forward to hearing more details of the investments and the timelines involved in Carney’s plan, but that she “fully supports the direction” of Carney’s plan.
“It’s really great news, and I have full confidence that he is going to make Canada both green and prosperous.”
— with files from the Canadian Press
