Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz accused Liberal Leader Mark Carney of masking a net-zero agenda under the guise of making Canada an “energy superpower,” citing a French-language interview where Carney clarified his focus on the energy transition.
In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Schulz quoted Carney responding to a question about his energy superpower vision: “But when I talk about an energy superpower, I am talking about the energy transition process.”
Schulz argued this reveals the Liberals’ disinterest in expanding pipelines or increasing Canadian oil and gas production, instead prioritizing “an uneconomical and forced energy transition no Canadian asked for.”
She branded Carney’s approach “Trudeau 2.0,” likening it to the former prime minister’s climate policies.
Premier Danielle Smith plans to double Alberta's oil and gas production in the coming years.
Carney, a former Bank of England governor and UN special envoy for climate action, has long championed net-zero emissions by 2050, emphasizing climate change as a financial and environmental crisis.
His campaign pledges, announced in Calgary on April 9, include fast-tracking clean energy projects, creating a Major Federal Project Office to streamline reviews within two years, and establishing a $5-billion Trade Diversification Corridor Fund for energy infrastructure.
He also committed to reducing oil and gas emissions through carbon capture while maintaining the Impact Assessment Act, which Alberta critics call the “no pipelines act.”
Carney’s climate plan, detailed on his campaign website, scraps the consumer carbon tax and shifts costs to large emitters via an enhanced Output-Based Pricing System.
Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss warned Canadians against Carney ahead of the April 28 election, accusing him of economic mismanagement as Bank of England governor. Truss claimed Carney’s quantitative easing fueled UK inflation and a pensions crisis, contributing to her 2022 downfall.
She criticized his net-zero climate policies as economically disastrous and warned they’d harm Canada’s economy, likening his leadership to Trudeau’s “woke” agenda.
Truss called Carney’s unelected status “illegitimate,” urging support for Conservatives. Her remarks, reported by The Counter Signal and National Post, drew skepticism due to her brief, chaotic tenure.