Calgary’s energy producing firms got some good news from the Government of Canada’s Budget 2025 during an event at UCalgary on Nov. 9.

Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience Elanor Olszewski, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Corey Hogan outlined how the government’s budget would put an end to emissions caps, provide increased clarity on industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and provide tax credits for the clean economy.

“With this plan, we’re strengthening carbon pricing as well as methane regulations, and those really are the most effective tools we have at this point in time to cut emissions while keeping Canadian industry competitive, and by that we mean on the world stage,” said Minister Olszewski.

“I think these new budgetary measures will ensure that Calgary continues to lead the way in building Canada’s clean energy future.”

She said that would come with partnerships with the provinces, local governments, and Indigenous groups.

“The Prime Minister and my cabinet colleagues are working with Alberta officials on transformative projects like Pathways, which will really position us as a global energy leader in the future. We are also trying to create certainty for investors, predictability, better market access for Alberta’s world class experts, so that we can ensure that clean growth means good jobs and shared prosperity,” said Minister Olszewski.

Hogan said the introduction of new incentive tax credits (ITCs) would build on the investments that have already been made by the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund into clean tech hubs within Calgary.

“The entire purpose of the ITCs is to generate the kind of capital and innovation that we know is going to be needed to make Canada that global leader that we’re talking about. We know that Calgary is not just a conventional energy hub. It is a is a clean energy hub. It is an energy hub full stop, and it’s part of why we lead the world across the entire spectrum of energy technologies,” he said.

Investment in clean tech were essential because other nations are also competing in that space, said Hogan.

“We’re seeing capital is moving into that space very aggressively. You’re seeing the clean technologies get the investments over the conventional technologies—both significant drivers of investment, both important, but this is where the world is going, and we need to secure both,” he said.

“But we’re not the only ones who realize this. Nations around the world are racing to build clean industries that will power the future in energy, manufacturing, critical minerals and technology. The clean technology market is set to triple by 2035. This transformation is reshaping trade.”

Budget 2025 supported by Chamber, major local firms

In a statement sent by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Budget 2025, they said that moves by the federal government to remove an emissions cap was something they were pleased with.

Hogan said that while those emissions caps were removed, there would continue to be an industrial price on carbon emissions.

“It will be important to to reduce our methane emissions. It’ll be important to invest in carbon capture and sequestration if we’re not going to proceed with that cap on oil and gas emissions. But the good news is, those are things that we’ve all said that we want to do. That’s things that provincial government said we want to do. That’s things that industry said that they want to do,” he said.

“So it suddenly becomes a question of let’s just make sure that we’re all have the same understanding, the same comprehension as to what that means. We’re not going to get to a situation where that means one thing to one thing to one party, one to the other.”

Minister Olszewski said collaboration would be the key to moving Canada’s and Calgary’s economy forward.

“The fact that the federal government is working together with premiers, with other business leaders, with other groups, to make sure that what we do reflects a consensus between those parties. I just think that’s fundamentally important,” she said.

Hogan said one of the rationales for removing the emissions cap was that the planet doesn’t really care where the emissions come from it was just important to reduce them—and that meant ensuring that the market could find solutions to that problem.

“Does this mean oil and gas emissions will go up. I don’t know? What we’ve seen is that oil and gas, of course, has managed to reduce emissions intensity over time. We’ve also seen that Canadian oil and gas, which is produced in an environmentally sensitive, socially sensitive way, has found markets across the world,” he said.

“If the market decides that ultimately you can reduce emissions elsewhere in Canada, and Canadians are better off with the emissions from oil and gas being lower in the order, that’s great. I don’t think any of us should have a problem with that, because our concern should be how do we reduce emissions? Not where do those reductions come from.”