Alberta pioneered industrial carbon pricing. Now, Poilievre says he’d kill the federal mandate for it [Video]

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith welcomed a promise from the Conservative Party of Canada on Monday to eliminate the federal backstop on industrial carbon pricing, if it were to form the next federal government. Although it appears unlikely the province would abandon its longstanding pricing system altogether.

“We fully support Pierre Poilievre’s commitment to return jurisdictional authority back to the provinces to regulate their own industrial emissions,” Smith said in a written statement.

Back in 2007, when Stephen Harper was prime minister and Ed Stelmach was premier, Alberta became the first jurisdiction in North America to put a price on industrial carbon emissions.

This policy is separate from the consumer-level carbon pricing — commonly known as the “carbon tax” — that Alberta adopted in 2017 under NDP premier Rachel Notley, then repealed in 2019 under UCP premier Jason Kenney.

Almost immediately after that, Alberta became subject to the federal carbon tax under Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which has now been effectively killed by Mark Carney’s Liberal government.

Throughout …