trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/3C8Z9yAlba0I3aguJI9_jQ2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Canada election campaign kicks off with energy, climate issues front and center

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


Canada election campaign kicks off with energy, climate issues front and center

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially kicked off a 40-day campaign that will see energy and climate issues play a key role in determining who will form the nation's next government.

Trudeau formally asked Governor General Julie Payette on Sept. 11 to issue a writ for a general election to take place Oct. 21. Canada has legislation that fixes election dates, although the nation's constitution allows the Queen's representative discretion about when to call a vote. The nation's political parties have been gearing up for the vote through much of 2019.

The governing Liberal Party enters the campaign in a statistical dead heat with the opposition Conservative Party, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s poll tracker. The measure, which aggregates data from public opinion research, showed both parties with 33.8% of decided voters. The data — current as of Sept. 10 — suggests a 41% chance that the Liberals will win a majority of seats in the election, the government-owned broadcaster said. In Canada's parliamentary democracy, the party that wins the most seats forms the government and its leader becomes prime minister.

"Canadians have an important choice to make," Trudeau said at an Ottawa press conference after meeting with the governor general. "Will we go back to the failed policies of the past, or will we continue to move forward."

Carbon tax

Trudeau, whose Liberals ousted the rival Conservatives under Stephen Harper in a 2015 election, now faces Andrew Scheer, an Ottawa native who represents the Saskatchewan district of Regina-Qu'Appelle. While typically Canadian issues like the economy, immigration and First Nations rights will play a major part in the campaign, Trudeau is likely to face extra scrutiny on his approach to climate and energy policy. When Trudeau was elected, the majority of Canadians lived in provinces governed by left-leaning parties that largely agreed with his climate-change initiatives, including emissions taxes. Since then, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta have elected right-leaning parties that disagree with the so-called carbon tax. The government imposed a C$20/tonne federal emissions levy on dissenting provinces in 2019, which has drawn court challenges.

The federal government also faces a legal challenge over Bill C-69, legislation that wound down the National Energy Board — which had been responsible for oversight and regulation of inter-provincial and international energy projects — and replaced it with the Canada Energy Regulator and an environmental assessment agency which will separately review new projects. Alberta's government claims the procedure will stop new projects like pipelines from proceeding and hamper the energy industry. The province has launched an appeal questioning the constitutionality of the legislation.

SNL Image

Trans Mountain Corp.'s Westridge Marine Terminal in British Columbia.
Source: Trans Mountain

Energy regulation has been a sticking point throughout Trudeau's tenure. Shortly after his 2015 election, the government undertook additional reviews of pipeline projects that had been approved by the National Energy Board. The government nixed Enbridge Inc.'s planned Northern Gateway oil pipeline linking the oil sands region of Alberta with the northern coast of British Columbia and approved Kinder Morgan Inc.'s planned expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline network. Changes to the National Energy Board's review criteria for a third pipeline, TC Energy Corp.'s Energy East project, resulted in the company pulling its application to build the Alberta-to-New Brunswick line.

The federal government ended up buying Trans Mountain Corp. from Kinder Morgan in 2018 for C$4.5 billion, after the Houston-based pipeline giant threatened to abandon the expansion amid protests and government meddling. The project's permits were quashed by a federal court the day before the deal closed, leading to a second federal review and approval. Days after Trans Mountain said it would restart construction of the expansion, the same court agreed to hear new challenges to its construction.

Trans Mountain could be a no-win situation for Trudeau entering the election. The expansion project is unpopular in Vancouver's populous Lower Mainland region, where the Liberals will likely need to retain seats in order to form a majority government. The project enjoys broad support in Alberta, where the Liberals have only four elected members.

Conservative leader Scheer has vowed to scrap the federal carbon tax and the value-added tax on home-heating fuels if he is elected. Scheer has said he would also repeal Bill C-69, seek a stay of the court challenges to Trans Mountain and appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, and lift a moratorium on oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's northern coast.

Trudeau, who entered the 2015 election campaign an underdog to Harper's Conservatives, remains confident that Canadians will look at his accomplishments over his term and overlook the challenges.

"We've done a lot together these past four years, but the truth is we're just getting started," Trudeau said in his Ottawa news conference. "I'm for moving forward for everyone."