EDITORIAL: EU’s climate policies could bankrupt us

Trying to match the EU on emission reductions would provoke a massive recession in Canada

Published Sep 17, 2026  •  Last updated 32 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Photo by Jean-Christophe Verhaegen /Getty Images

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If Canada’s new trade deal with the European Union means we adopt its policies on climate change, it will be an economic disaster for Canada.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will retain its sovereignty under any deal with the EU and no one is going to dictate Canadian policies.

But we don’t know what being the EU’s first “associate member,” or having a “unique alliance” or “an alliance for the future” with the EU, as it has been variously described, means.

Does it mean, as Sun Media’s Bryan Passifiume reported Thursday, that Canada would agree to comply with EU environmental and industrial regulations?

That includes its carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is a carbon tariff, a Canadian version of which Carney said he would introduce during last year’s federal election.

Canada is a big, cold, northern country with a relatively sparse population and a resource-based economy.

It is more than twice as large as the land mass of all 27 EU nations combined and has a colder climate than any of them, the second-coldest on earth after Russia.

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The idea that what works for the EU in terms of reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions will work for Canada is absurd.

It’s true the EU has been more successful at lowering emissions than Canada — down by 37% compared to 1990 levels as of 2023, while Canada’s increased by 13%.

Trying to match the EU on emission reductions would provoke a massive recession in Canada — the very reason Prime Minister Mark Carney abandoned former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s absurd emission targets.

Trudeau’s was to reduce our emissions by at least 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. According to the latest government data, we’re at 10.3% below.

Failing to achieve Trudeau’s targets has cost federal taxpayers alone (excluding provincial, territorial and municipal taxpayers) more than $200 billion.

We don’t need another financial disaster falling down the same money pit as the EU.

As the Wall Street Journal reported last year, while Europe slashed emissions, it also crippled its economy and today, “political consensus is cracking, and high-profile projects are being postponed thanks to some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world … the rapid abandonment of traditional fossil fuels triggered … corporate flight and mounting political backlash.”

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