ATCO Ltd. CEO Nancy Southern says she does not share the concerns other business leaders have expressed about what an increase in the industrial carbon price would mean for Canada's competitiveness.
Southern says nobody wants extra costs imposed upon them, but the Canadian oil industry is “extraordinarily innovative” and can find ways to compete. She says Canada's goal of becoming an “energy superpower” requires endurance for decades to come.
Southern envisions a scenario where, by 2040, Canada leads the world in carbon capture technology and clean fuels are in high global demand.
A memorandum of understanding between Alberta and the federal government calls for the effective carbon price to rise to $130 a tonne from the current provincial headline price of $95, though credits trade for far less.
Leaders in the oil and gas industry, including the CEO of Cenovus Energy Inc., have said the carbon policy puts Canada at a competitive disadvantage, with discourse “myopically focused on the climate agenda.”