Laurie Adkin, a professor emerita of political science at the University of Alberta, told The Maple that she regards Trudeau’s performance on climate as a “crushing disappointment.” “The idea is just to keep the economy running as it normally does, without there being any substantial cost to capitalists,” said Adkin. “I think it’s pretty clear that this is unsustainable, both socially and environmentally.”

In his November 2024 report, Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco revealed that Canada has only reduced CO2 emissions by seven per cent since 2005, meaning the government has “only six years left to do essentially 20 or 30 years worth of reductions.”

Mere months before introducing the carbon tax legislation, Trudeau purchased the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project (TMX) from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion after the company threatened to back away from the project. By the time the expansion opened in May 2024, nearly tripling the amount of tar sands bitumen shipped to the B.C. Lower Mainland for export, its price tag had increased to $34 billion.

Trudeau’s support for ongoing fossil fuel expansion, Mertins-Kirkwood added, reflects a “knot that the government’s trying to tie itself into,” in which it attempts to cut CO2 emissions for domestic consumption while expanding fossil fuel production, displacing the emissions generated from increased production onto other countries. While Canada’s domestic emissions have decreased in recent years, Canada’s National Observer recently reported that emissions from the oil, gas and coal that Canada exports, which aren’t covered by Canada’s emissions reduction commitments, have increased by 58 per cent since 2012. “We are actually fuelling climate change on a global scale through our exports,” said Adkin. “The first thing we should actually be cutting back in terms of a phase out is exports, but that’s not on the agenda.”