'Extraordinarily innovative' oil sector can weather increased carbon price: ATCO CEO

ATCO Ltd. CEO Nancy Southern speaks to reporters following the company's annual general meeting in Calgary on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lauren Krugel

CALGARY — The chief executive of ATCO Ltd. says she does not share the concerns other business leaders have expressed around what an increase in the industrial carbon price would mean for Canada’s competitiveness.

Nancy Southern says nobody wants to have extra costs imposed upon them, but the Canadian oil industry is “extraordinarily innovative” and can find ways to compete.

She says the “energy superpower” that Canada is striving to become needs to be able to endure decades from now.

Southern imagines a scenario where, by 2040, Canada is a world leader in carbon capture technology and clean fuels are in high global demand.

A memorandum of understanding signed between the Alberta and federal governments late last year calls for the effective carbon price to rise to $130 a tonne from the current provincial headline price of $95, though credits trade for far less.

Leaders in the oil and gas industry have said the carbon policy puts Canada at a competitive disadvantage compared to other oil exporters, with the CEO of Cenovus Energy Inc. saying last week that the discourse has been “myopically focused on the climate agenda.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2026.

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press