Canada Last: Emissions cap to kill 100,000 jobs while China builds coal plants
Let’s be blunt: this is economic sabotage dressed up as climate policy.
A new analysis from the Fraser Institute confirms what many Canadians already suspected: the Trudeau–Carney emissions cap is a job-killing, economy-shrinking, climate-ineffective disaster in the making.
Despite Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent hedging on whether he’ll actually go through with the emissions cap and Bill C-69, Fraser Institute researchers say the damage is already mapped out—and it’s steep.
The emissions cap, aimed exclusively at Canada’s oil and gas sector, would force producers to slash emissions 35% below 2019 levels by 2030. But according to Fraser’s breakdown of recent federal and independent reports, the cap will:
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Slash Canadian oil and gas production by up to 12%
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Cost the economy at least $44 billion in a single year
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Kill between 54,000 and 151,000 jobs
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Drain $151 billion in federal revenue between 2030 and 2040
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Deliver virtually no measurable environmental benefit
Even if Canada shut down the entire energy sector tomorrow, global emissions would drop by just 0.4%—an amount so small it would vanish in the global emissions curve. Meanwhile, China is on a coal plant building spree.
And that’s before factoring in carbon leakage—the Fraser Institute notes that 30% of any emissions “reduction” in Canada will simply reappear overseas as industry flees to countries with looser regulations.
Let’s be blunt: this is economic sabotage dressed up as climate policy.
Fraser also warns the cap would devastate Canada’s petrochemical industry, which uses oil and gas as critical feedstocks to produce everything from plastics and resins to solvents and medical supplies—many of which can’t be easily replaced or imported at scale.
The federal government claims the cap is necessary for reaching “net zero” by 2050. But the Fraser Institute is clear: the cap will do nothing to help the environment and everything to hurt working Canadians—particularly those in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Until Carney actually repeals the cap, it remains Trudeau’s parting gift to Western Canada: a trillion-dollar anchor tied to our most productive sector.
Read the full analysis from the Fraser Institute: Mounting evidence suggests emissions cap will harm Canadians
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-05-22 21:15:04 -0400Stupid Liberals and their idiot voters have scuttled prosperity again and again. And eastern Canada wonders why we westerners are so angry? Just wait until we leave and take our petro dollars with us.
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-05-22 12:29:23 -0400Why is this surprising? Remember the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline? Had that project gone ahead, we’d all be rolling in money now. But, no, because Alberta might have profited from it, PET’s phony baloney commission scuttled it.
