ADVOCACY CORNER

Featured in the newsletter on a monthly basis, Advocacy Corner provides insight into federal and provincial political activity of importance to our Members. Read on to find out what decisions are being made, what’s on the horizon, and what it all means for our sector.

‘Heating up’ the Debate on Carbon Taxes

With the House of Commons back and in full swing as the federal budget quickly approaches, affordability is a key issue of the day. For the Conservatives, that means promising to “keep the heat on” until the government “takes the [carbon] tax off.”

This has generally played itself out on the floor of the House of Commons, where the Conservatives see an opportunity in Atlantic Canada to steal seats from the Liberals. With the recent news that both New Brunswick and PEI are abandoning provincial carbon tax collection, resulting in the automatic application and collection of a federal carbon tax, the Conservatives are beginning to spend significant sums of money to run ads against the Liberals in Atlantic Canada.

Meanwhile, the Liberals are hanging their hat on a near-$200 billion increase in health transfers over the next 10 years to turn around their public opinion woes and get back in the driver’s seat of proactive messaging to bolster their re-election creds.

With the Canada Health Transfer behind them, all eyes in Ottawa will now turn to the federal budget, which Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has clearly noted will be focused on responsible investments in health care and the clean economy.

Transition Troubles

The Liberal government continues to experience headaches over its “just transition” legislation, which faces significant opposition from stakeholders, including the Alberta NDP and Alberta’s United Conservative Party. Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has remained steadfast in his intent to table legislation during this session of the House so that it might pass by the June recess.

Stealing from the Prime Minister’s playbook in recent health care negotiations, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has stated her willingness to collaborate with the federal government on certain climate and energy initiatives, but only if Ottawa agrees to certain conditions. Specifically, that would include Alberta having an effective veto on federal legislation or policies that would impact Alberta’s oil and gas resource development, management, or workforce participation.

With a provincial election looming, this approach is best understood as a simple political tactic, as such a condition is a non-starter for the federal government. After all, it’s more likely that Smith will get elected if the Alberta election is a referendum on Justin Trudeau and not the United Conservative Party of Alberta.

As it relates to jobs and skills development, the Liberals did make news this month with the launch of their interim Sustainable Jobs Plan. Its 10 key action areas include governance work to oversee the plan, funding for skills development, improvement of labour market data collection and analysis, and investor incentives.

What Lies Ahead

The federal budget is soon to be tabled (though perhaps as late as mid-April), so we would like to update you on what CEMA has been working toward during this budget cycle. Specifically, CEMA drafted a budget submission asking for the development of a funding vehicle to support renewable fuel infrastructure upgrades for Members. We are asking for $500 million in federal funding to increase access to biofuels at Canada’s nearly 12,000 retail sites.

CEMA has proposed two options for the funding ask:

1. Creating a specified Low Carbon Intensity Fuel Infrastructure fund to provide nonrepayable grants toward infrastructure upgrades; or

2. Expanding the Investment Tax Credit for Clean Technologies to cover renewable fuel infrastructure.