As the price of oil hovers at a tenth of what it was a year ago, Canada’s oil and gas producers are asking Ottawa to freeze the carbon tax and delay new climate change regulations while the industry weathers the COVID-19 assault.
In a story published today, Mia Rabson of The Canadian Press reports that the request was made in a letter to Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan, dated March 27.
The price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and plummeting demands have pushed crude prices below $5 a barrel, less than a tenth of what it traded for a year ago.
In his letter to O’Regan, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers CEO Tim McMillan said Canada’s energy sector is facing an “unprecedented fiscal assault” from a global collapse in oil prices.
Many environmentalists are not buying it.
They say the request is an attempt to use the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to curb health and safety and delay regulations that will help the environment.
“It’s a crass attempt to take advantage of a global health crisis,” Dale Marshall, national climate program manager with Environmental Defence, told CP’s Rabson.
The rhetoric is a continuation of a difference of opinion that remains heated in Canada, as Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberals try to thread a tiny political needle.
The tensions remain and will not be going away anytime soon.
With files from The Canadian Press (Mia Rabson)
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