Last week, our federal government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta that backs a massive expansion of oil and gas — even doubling exports — while rolling back some of Canada’s most important climate policies. This deal moves Canada in the opposite direction of what the climate crisis demands.
Canada may face many challenges, but none is more fundamental than protecting a livable environment for ourselves, our families and our future. Yet instead of strengthening climate action, our leaders are choosing to weaken it and are taking steps that will make the crisis far worse.
If you believe Canada should be acting with urgency to address the climate crisis, not worsening it, I encourage you to email your elected representatives. Their contact information is available at this link.
Here is the letter I emailed to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the government members of the House Environment Committee, and my local MP.
Dear Mr. Carney,
I am writing to express my profound disappointment in your government’s rollback of Canada’s climate policies, culminating most recently in the decision to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to promote fossil fuel development with the Government of Alberta. These are decisions that betray the trust Canadians have placed in your government to protect their health, safety and welfare.
I recognize that our country faces many urgent challenges — supporting the economy, protecting our sovereignty, and maintaining the integrity of our confederation. But none of these can come at the expense of preserving a livable climate for ourselves and future generations. That responsibility is fundamental.
Fossil fuels are the predominant cause of climate change, which is harming the health and welfare of Canadians and people around the world. Despite the harms it causes, your government and the Government of Alberta have made clear their intention to become an oil and gas “superpower”, aiming to double the very industry driving this crisis.
Pursuing this goal is unconscionable given the harm climate change is already inflicting: deadly heat, billion-dollar floods, increasingly severe wildfires that have displaced tens of thousands, toxic smoke degrading air quality, and deepening drought threatening crops, water, and food security across Canada.
These impacts are occurring at the current level of 1.4°C of warming. With scientists now projecting warming of 2.5˚ to 3.0˚C, the impacts of climate change will escalate dramatically if we don’t act urgently to transition away from fossil fuels.
As one of the world’s largest fossil-fuel producers and one of its most prosperous nations, Canada has both the obligation and the means to lead. Yet we are projecting to fail to meet our modest 2030 climate targets, and we remain the only G7 country whose emissions have increased since 1990.
Instead of strengthening our response, your government is weakening climate policies and locking Canada into expanded fossil-fuel development for decades.
I am particularly troubled by your government’s use of misleading language to justify its actions. You certainly know that oil and gas cannot be “decarbonized” and suggesting that if Canada doesn’t supply more fossil fuels, others will simply fill the demand is also false. Expanding production increases global supply, lowers prices, drives higher consumption, and slows the transition to clean energy. These are narratives that mislead Canadians at a moment when honesty is essential.
To put it bluntly, your government is putting my family’s safety at risk. That is not what I believed I was supporting when I voted for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Canadians need a government that does more about climate change, not less. In response to this crisis that threatens all of us, we need leadership grounded in science, integrity, and a commitment to protecting people — not polluters.
I urge you to change course, end the rollback of climate policies, and pursue a credible plan aligned with the scale of the crisis we face.
Sincerely,
Mark Beaudet
Montreal, Quebec
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