Old emission plan would have been ‘opportunity’ to ‘pull Canada apart’: Carney

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OTTAWA - As Prime Minister Mark Carney attempts to make Canada an energy superpower, he is conceding for the first time that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will be “higher in the next few years” than projected under the previous government’s plan. The admission came in his second “Forward Guidance” video address to Canadians released on Tuesday.

“In my judgement, that plan was not sustainable over the long term,” Carney said in the 17-minute long video posted to his YouTube page.

The prime minister and his cabinet ministers have been noncommittal about the federal government’s existing emissions targets when asked in recent months.

Without naming his predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau, Carney says the emissions plan he inherited “would have been too expensive” for Canadians who are already struggling with affordability. He also points out it would have “been too divisive for our country in the current environment.”

“The old plan was an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart, both at home and from abroad,” he said.

While Carney called Trudeau’s climate plan “well-intentioned and well suited for the times at which it was designed,” he added “the certainties of the world of 2015 are long gone.”

Trudeau was elected in 2015 on a promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent of 2005 levels by the year 2030. In 2021, the Liberals went even further, promising to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by that same target date.

Carney also had sharp words for the energy plan of another Trudeau. He describes how he was a teenager in Edmonton when then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau introduced the National Energy Program in the 1980s, which was supposed to be a symbol of economic nationalism while guaranteeing set prices for oil and gas. Instead, it made western Canadians feel like the federal government was using them to subsidize cheaper energy for the rest of the country.

“What should have brought us together began to divide us, contributing to a half century of politics that have too often pulled us apart,” Carney said in the video address.

While Carney also said his government is focused on lowering emissions “over time,” he did not provide a target for that goal. In the same breath, he noted how Canada is producing far more oil than the country ever has, claiming only the United States and Russia have increased production more than Canada.

A progress report from the Canadian Climate Institute in 2025 had already concluded that Canada was “not on track to achieve any of its climate goals.”

Carney’s admission about emissions targets is his latest walk back from Trudeau-era climate policies. Since becoming prime minister, Carney has cancelled the consumer carbon tax and paused the federal electric vehicle sales mandates to focus instead on offering subsidies.

Conventional energy ‘should come from Canada’

Carney’s comments come as Alberta is set to hold a referendum on Oct. 19 and one of the questions will ask Albertans whether they want to remain in Canada or hold a second, binding vote on separation in the future.

In his video address, Carney said as much conventional energy “as possible should come from Canada” when “produced responsibly,” and alluded to that as a way to unite Canada in the long term.

The prime minister also touted new access to Asian markets from the West Coast thanks to the Trans Mountain pipeline coming online last year and he promoted the development of a second pipeline with Alberta through the memorandum of understanding which was signed in November 2025.

But some environmentalists were quick to criticize Carney’s assertation that some climate measures put in place over the last decade were dividing the country.

Lisa Gue, who works as the national policy manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, questioned Carney’s argument.

“We have a common interest in a long-term resilient economy. We have a common interest in a sustainable environment that supports our well-being,” Gue told CTV News Channel on Tuesday. “I don’t think the prime minister has made the case at all that a pipeline is in the common interest of people in Canada.”

That strategy, however, was endorsed by the G7 leaders earlier this month in Evian, France, where they committed to diversifying energy supply routes away from the Strait of Hormuz which has become a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas during the Iran conflict.

“We welcome the potential for Canada to deliver significant additional capacity (in energy stocks) to global markets in coming years,” read part of the G7 joint leaders’ statement dated June 17.

Meanwhile, as he did in the last video, Carney used a historical Canadian figure as a way to point towards the future. In April, it was the “Hero of Upper Canada” Sir Isaac Brock, and in this latest video, he told the story of Sir Adam Beck, a Canadian politician who was a fierce advocate for hydroelectricity.

Beck was an advocate for publicly owned electricity grids, and he helped to harness the power of the Niagara River with an 18-storey high generating station that provided clean power for the people of Ontario.

While calling back to that time, Carney also promoted his own national electricity strategy, which hopes to double Canada’s electricity grid by the year 2050.

“We’ll build quickly and at scale to double our energy infrastructure and build a strong Canada that is powered by clean, affordable, and reliable energy,” Carney said.

‘We need to see the results’

Speaking to CTV News, Conservative energy and natural resources critic Carol Anstey reiterated the Opposition’s criticism towards Carney, saying more major projects need to come to fruition.

“A lot of the things that the prime minister has been talking about sound great, but we’re not seeing any major projects move forward,” Anstey said.

“We’d like to see the prime minister remove anti-development legislation, and we’d like to see shovels in the ground and actual results,” she later added.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is set to announce next steps in her push for a new oil pipeline to Canada’s west coast on Thursday.

As part of the energy memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Alberta and the federal government late last year, the province had until July 1 to submit its proposal for a new pipeline to the Major Projects Office (MPO).

While speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Kuujjuaq, Que., Carney said he is “up to speed” on the proposal and has yet to see a private proponent for the project come forward.

With files from CTV News’ Ottawa bureau chief Graham Richardson