Questions for Candidates about Carbon Pricing

PREAMBLE:
A majority of Conservative, NDP and Liberal supporters (1) know that eliminating the carbon price isn’t the best way to make life more affordable (2). It should come as no surprise, then, that almost two-thirds of people across Canada remain open to voting for a party that will defend these principles by holding onto pollution pricing (3).

This commitment to tackling fossil fuel pollution—which drives inflation (4), wildfires, droughts, and biodiversity loss—is both necessary and effective. Pollution pricing ensures by taking action now we are protecting future generations from bearing an even greater cost in the future.

Pollution pricing also protects our health. Burning fossil fuels overheat our planet and fuel the climate crisis, which science confirms is the greatest global health threat of the 21st century (5). Fossil fuel air pollution has been linked to one in seven premature deaths worldwide (6).

Canadians’ ambition should be matched with strong commitments by you, our political leaders. We commend Canada’s leadership on pollution pricing to date, and hope to see parties commit to even stronger measures in the upcoming election. This is more important than ever, since pollution pricing expands Canada’s options to respond to economic threats from the United States.

QUESTIONS:

To reassure Canadians that your platforms will not betray our kids or undermine our health and economic sovereignty, we ask that you respond to the following three questions: 

1. Will you commit to upholding pollution pricing as a key element of your party’s climate, health and economic platform? If so, in what ways?   
2. Will you protect and enforce existing, highly effective pollution pricing targeting industrial emissions and thereby protect billions of dollars of investments and Canadian competitiveness (7)?
3. If you reject the existing consumer carbon price and rebate system, how will you make up (or exceed) the 14% of lost emissions reductions (8)?

Canadians deserve clear, accountable leadership on pollution pricing. We look forward to hearing each of your responses.

REFERENCES

1. Results for the Green Party were not available due to sample size. 
2. Generation Squeeze (2025). No party is really listening to Canadians when it comes to pollution pricing. https://www.gensqueeze.ca/pollution_pricing_poll
3. Abacus Data. What Policy Ideas Attract and Repel Canadian Voters? A look at the “Third Rails” of Canadian Politics. April 2024. https://abacusdata.ca/policies-canadian-politics-attract-repel/ 
4.  March 2025 report that fossil fuels were the major driver of inflation in 2022. Counting the Costs: Impacts of the 2022 Oil Price Shock for Canadian Consumers and Workers, by Jim Stanford and Erin Weir.
   https://centreforfuturework.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe9d8bad7f24969df66a9a92e&id=b6d2e8b884&e=cb1ec0baa0 
5. The Lancet (2009). A Commission on climate change, vol. 373 (9676). https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60922-3/fulltext
6. Vohra et al. (2021). Global mortality from outdoor fine particle pollution generated by fossil fuel combustion: Results from GEOS-Chem. Environmental Research (vol. 195). 
7. Eliminating industrial carbon pricing would undermine competitiveness and Canada’s climate progress
   https://climateinstitute.ca/news/eliminating-industrial-carbon-pricing-competitiveness-canada-climate-progress/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nmarch25letsi 
8. 440 Megatonnes (2024). Which Canadian climate policies will have the biggest impact by 2030? https://440megatonnes.ca/insight/industrial-carbon-pricing-systems-driver-emissions-reductions/