Natasha Bulowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Canada’s National Observer
Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin would not say whether she supports a new oil pipeline, nor acknowledge that a new pipeline would increase planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, at a federal committee meeting Monday morning.
Opposition MPs grilled Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin just days after her predecessor, Steven Guilbeault, resigned from Carney’s cabinet over the decision to strike up a deal on pipelines with Alberta. Guilbeault had been shuffled into the role of Canadian identity minister and Quebec Lieutenant in March.
Bloc Québécois environment critic Patrick Bonin asked Dabrusin point blank whether a new pipeline would increase or reduce emissions. Dabrusin, echoing Major Projects Office head Dawn Farrell, dodged and declined to give the yes or no answer Bonin sought. Instead, Dabrusin gestured to the memorandum of understanding’s commitment to advance carbon capture and storage and negotiate with Alberta to strengthen the industrial carbon price.
The Alberta-based Pembina Institute ran the numbers in October and found a “grand bargain” to build the Pathways Alliance carbon capture megaproject alongside a million-barrel-per-day pipeline would result in more oilsands emissions, not less.
One of the many climate concessions in the Alberta-Ottawa MOU is to immediately suspend the Clean Electricity Regulations in Alberta while a new carbon pricing agreement is negotiated, with a deadline of April 1, 2026.
“I think it’s a really amazing thing that Alberta is going to sit down and do that negotiation,” Dabrusin said. Guilbeault, in his resignation letter, called this trade-off “a serious mistake.”
Alberta is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other province or territory.
CPC MP Branden Leslie wanted to know whether Dabrusin has a line in the sand like Guilbeault — any piece of policy that, were it to be eliminated, she would resign over. The minister did not draw any red lines.
Dabrusin also drew fire for her carefully worded responses.
“Are you constitutionally impaired from saying the word ‘oil pipeline’?” CPC MP David Bexte asked, eliciting a laugh from Dabrusin. Both the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives wanted Dabrusin to clearly state her position on a new oil pipeline but neither got what they wanted.
“Pipeline is a binary thing. It’s either we build a pipeline or we don’t. There’s no middle ground. Do you support a pipeline?” Bexte asked.
“I support that, if the provinces and the Indigenous peoples are in agreement that then there is a pathway to actually make that happen,” Dabrusin said. “I would not override Indigenous peoples’ agreement, and I would not override the province of British Columbia, which is what the Conservatives say they would do.”
Dabrusin said she remains committed to Canada’s 2030 climate targets. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and the Canadian Climate Institute say in separate analyses that Canada is on track to miss its targets under the current scenario. The PBO’s analysis was done before the federal government paused the electric vehicle sales mandate, another climate policy plank, or signed the MOU with Alberta. Dabrusin repeatedly pointed out that the PBO’s analysis didn’t factor in the 10 page Climate Competitiveness Strategy in the budget.
Among the many other concessions and support for expanding oil production in the MOU, the federal government reiterated its budget commitment to walk back competition laws that prevent companies from lying about the sustainability of their operations, delay methane targets by five years and a promise not to implement a cap on oil and gas sector emissions.
The federal government points to the importance of getting Alberta onboard to strengthen industrial carbon pricing — a highly impactful tool to reduce emissions — but the federal government has jurisdiction to enforce carbon pricing and it is unclear exactly what the final agreement with Alberta will look like. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s chief of staff Rob Andersen took to social media shortly after the MOU was launched to clarify that the terms and timeline of that are still under negotiation with both governments and industry and will not scale up to $170 per tonne by 2030, as called for by the current regulations.
