Feb. 23, 2017
Energy companies in Canada must be prepared for how the federal Liberal government’s Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (the Pan-Canadian Framework) will impact their business, according to an article in JWN Energy. In his article, author R.P. Stastny explains how under the plan, the federal government will impose a carbon levy of $10/tonne if provinces don’t have their own climate plans in place by 2018. While some provinces have reservations about the plan, Alberta has already been experiencing a similar regulatory landscape, according to Dana Saric, an associate in Osler’s Corporate Practice Group who specializes in oil and gas and climate change regulations.
“From an Alberta oil and gas producer perspective, there are no additional measures and costs, at this time, over and above what the Alberta government has announced in the past year provincially,” Dana tells JWN Energy.
Dana says the core of the Pan-Canadian Framework is no more ambitious than Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, which was announced a year before the former. She says the “stuff about clean tech and jobs and adaptation and resilience uses a lot of words like ‘working together,’ ‘partner with,’ ‘co-operate with provinces,” so that part of it doesn’t add anything more — except some ambiguity.”
For more information, read R.P. Stastny’s article “Climate legislation is a work in progress full of risks energy companies can’t ignore” in JWN Energy.