GUNTER: Carney can't deliver strong economy with anti-oil, anti-gas stance

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So, Prime Minister Mark Carney won’t repeal the federal Liberals’ Impact Assessment Act (IAA) if they are re-elected. That means two things: Carney’s not serious about diversifying Canada’s economy and making Canada less dependent on the U.S.

And Carney’s pledge “to build one strong Canadian economy” is bogus. His vision of a unified national economy clearly doesn’t include Alberta and Saskatchewan.

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If your province produces oil, it’s not part of Mark Carney’s fairy tale plan for transitioning to a rich, prosperous, net-zero economy.

All of this will make it harder to insulate our economy and standards of living from the wild trade mood swings of President Donald Trump and his tariffs.

Oil is Canada’s biggest export, its biggest source of government revenue from a single industry and the biggest single source of our GDP.

You cannot make Canada’s economy “the fastest growing economy in the G7” (another Carney pledge) without its biggest source of export income.

Oh, I know, “green” fanatics such as Carney and his Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault (who was Trudeau’s radical environment minister) have convinced themselves they can just wave a magic wand and — presto! — fossil fuels can be replaced by wind, solar and bug burps.

Wave another wand and all our vehicles will become EVs, all our gas furnaces are heat pumps. Our power grid is transformed to net-zero seamlessly and inexpensively. And all Canadian workers find double happiness jobs that pay even more than current oilpatch jobs.

Realistically, though, that’s not going to happen; not soon or ever.

It was a good thing, that Canada was largely spared extra tariffs when Trump announced his latest round of tariffs on Wednesday. But we’re not free of all tariffs that could easily reduce our exports to the U.S. And given how mercurial Trump has been with his on-again, off-again tariffs since being sworn in in January, we can never trust his administration fully again.

Despite the bullet being dodged on Wednesday (thank Premiers Danielle Smith and Doug Ford for their lobbying efforts with the Trump administration), Canada must continue its efforts to minimize future economic damage inflicted by the States.

We are still going to need to produce more oil, natural gas, minerals, food exports and manufactured goods. And we are still going to have to get the extra oil to non-American markets, which will require pipelines.

But so long as the IAA exists, there will be no new pipelines. And if there are no new pipelines, there will be no miraculous growth.

That was the whole purpose of the IAA — to make pipelines unfeasible. Did you know, for instance, that under the IAA, a pipeline company could satisfy the demands of every First Nation along its proposed route and meet all environmental requirements, yet still be denied a development permit because it didn’t employ enough female or trans welders?

The Supreme Court struck down the first version of the IAA in October 2023 because it trampled all over provincial jurisdiction. Guilbeault and the Liberals tabled a revised version in October 2024, which the Alberta government was sure was still unconstitutional.

Mercifully, the revised bill died when the Liberals asked Governor General Mary Simon to call the current election, but Tuesday Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised to keep what he could of the second bill.

This is not a surprise. Since leaving the Bank of England seven years ago, Carney has had two occupations. He has been a UN envoy on climate change and he has run an alliance of banks, insurance companies and investment firms dedicated to killing the oil and gas industry.

Promising to keep the No-More-Pipelines bill if he is elected on April 28 is perfectly in keeping with the real Mark Carney.