Not a bug, but a feature: Canada’s carbon pricing wipes out Alberta oilsands’ edge
Canada’s industrial carbon tax pushes the cost of producing a marginal barrel of oilsands crude to $75 USD (at $95/tonne carbon tax)—well above what new projects in Texas or New Mexico face—stripping away the tax advantage Alberta needs to attract energy investment, according to a new Fraser Institute study by Jack Mintz, president’s fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
The findings land as Ottawa and Alberta advance a one-million-barrel-per-day West Coast oil pipeline proposal under their November 2025 memorandum of understanding (MOU) and May 2026 implementation agreement. So far, Pembina Pipeline Corp. is the only private partner to sign on, taking a 10 percent stake during construction, and no oil producers have yet committed to shipping on the line.
Mintz said the research began long before the current political moment.
“This work was started about three, four years ago—it was more of an academic interest,” he said in a phone interview with The Hub. “It struck me that no one had really looked at carbon taxation and how it affects competitiveness.”
sooooooooooooooo AB, HOW MUCH GNIKUCF longer you gonna put up with this theft?
There were a lot of Loyalists 250 years ago.
Yeah, they lost, but they prolonged the war, and got a lot of Patriots killed.
There are wayyyyy too many Albertan Loyalists.
Like they did on marijuana, the government will find a way to lose money selling oil.
The whole point of Canada implementing “carbon taxes” was to destroy the so-called “tar sands”, of which easterners are horribly ashamed. Everything else is just collateral damage.
Yup.
… “no one had looked at how (unilateral) carbon taxation affects (one’s own) competitiveness”
… “no oil producers have committed” (nor have any interest in going broke)
… “by 2030 the Oilsands carbon tax will have risen to 137% (sic), 12 times the cost for Texas”
(as if it could survive that long)
… “while public debate fixates on Oilsands, numbers suggest the biggest hit will be electricity”
Invest in rope.
What are Pembina’s political connections? It would explain a lot about them being “involved” so early while all other pipeline entities are staying far, far away from this government make work foray.
Anyone who thinks this gets built under all the current regimes in AB, BC, and Globalist Ottawa, well, I’ve got an old blue bridge for sale, slightly used, just broken in at 100 years old, tons of life left in it. I’ll give ya a sweet deal.
Pembina, I am sure, plans to make money out of selling carbon credits. They may be based in Alberta, but they are a Liberal progressive concern. Read the stuff coming out of the Pembina Institute.
” It struck me…”
Yeah, like a carbon bullet maybe.
Or, more likely, like turd shrapnel off the proverbial fan.
Carbon taxes are penance for the original sin of prosperity and cheered on by the the parasitic and resentful Eloi that constitute the Canadian electorate. Unfortunately Alberta’s cities are populated and governed by them. The Carney-Smith new romance and state-capitalism mythos of carbon-capture and blank-cheque pipeline venture is likely quelling the marginal independence voter into the comfort zone of eco-fascist fog and delusion. There is a reason no private capital is interested when the state has made “economic” development illegal with only an illusion of future development all under the dead hand of the state.
Carbon taxes are a way to make money from nothing: selling “carbon credits”.
Good old Jack Mintz. It’s a shame that he never had twin daughters. He could have called them Candace and Elizabeth. “I’m Candy Mintz!” “I’m Beth Mintz!”
Pepper Mintz?
Britney “Spear” Mint
Anybody who believes a single word said by Canadian Government or Media is simply a blooming idiot beyond redemption.
And if you disagree, name the Government or Media.
I’m confident the evidence is beyond overwhelming.
I wonder what is passing through Danielle Smith’s mind ?..
If she anticipated the betrayal inherent in Carney’s MOU and promises of promises..What is her plan?
If she did not anticipate being betrayed by the Federal Government..Where was her head?
Being “forced” to embrace ever more expensive and useless “carbon capture schemes,before you can ever proceed with exporting your number one wealth earning resource??
Utter insanity.
So is Danielle working for an independent Alberta?
Or is she a naive and trusting idiot?
For Mark Carney and his cabinet of children,are our number one promoters of an Independent Alberta.
The classic Liberal conservative divide..
If you wish to offend a Liberal; tell them the truth.
If you wish to offend a Conservative; Lie to them.
Our federal government cannot stop lying,almost as if the truth would kill them..Endless lies,deceits and propaganda..
Does anyone in the “real world” really believe Ottawa will stop stealing from Alberta?
“So is Danielle working for an independent Alberta?”
I once thought so.
Now I think she is doing what she did to the Wild Rose Party.
I think she is a spoiler. I think she is selling out Alberta. She has her thumb on the scale so to speak.
The questions that she formulated for the referendum process seem to heavily favor staying in Canada.
Land back … to its original state … before the white man raped it.
Ha! That’s not an inflammatory statement … it is the eco-indigenous-Declaration of Dependence. Dependence on the whims of nature.
In that case it would mean spilling millions of barrels of oil around Fort Mac, and letting it seep into the sand. That’s the natural state. The oil companies are actually cleaning up nature’s oil spill.
As great mother turtle wanted it
The more you pump, the more you lose. Sounds like the perfect Canadian business model.