Opinion: Looking west from Alberta has never been more precarious
It can be easy to think that nothing past the Rockies really matters to Albertans, but what's happening in British Columbia is deeply troubling. Government mismanagement of B.C.'s finances, economy and natural resources should be a warning to us all.
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B.C. Premier David Eby has introduced economic and energy policies that are catastrophic for workers, families and businesses across his province. The provincial deficit for 2025 is at least $11 billion — and more likely to pass $15 billion, once Eby updates the numbers this fall.
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Leading the parade of bad NDP ideas is Eby's CleanBC plan, which shows what happens when political ideology is placed ahead of common sense and economic reality. A recent ICBA Economics report delivered a shocking assessment, based on the B.C. government's own analysis: CleanBC will strip away $109.7 billion in economic activity from its economy by 2029 — more than 2.5 times the damage that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff war and Prime Minister Mark Carney's retaliatory trade barriers could inflict.
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That's not a future Alberta should aspire to emulate.
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CleanBC is forcing B.C. to decarbonize too much, too fast — without realistic transition plans for people, businesses or industries. It may sound virtuous from a political podium but, on the ground, it's driving up costs, deterring investment, slowing construction and making it nearly impossible to build needed housing, infrastructure and energy projects. Meanwhile, global emissions keep rising and B.C. grows poorer, not greener.
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Could Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi — whose municipal track record was defined by ballooning spending, tax hikes and a wariness of business voices trying to bring practical, on-the-ground insight to policy conversations — bring similar policies and thinking to Alberta? If handed the keys to Alberta, would he follow Eby's lead: adding red tape, building massive bureaucracies and punishing the very industries that fund our hospitals, schools and roads?
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If not, let's hear him say it: Say that Eby's policies are dangerous and destructive.
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Make no mistake, we support smart, balanced, common-sense climate policy. But CleanBC isn't that. It's more effective at cleaning out taxpayer coffers than it is at cleaning the air.
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Albertans should take that as a warning, not a blueprint.
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The ICBA report also exposed another inconvenient truth for Eby and his allies: the B.C. NDP's much-touted move to eliminate the consumer-facing carbon tax is a political stunt with almost no economic upside. The real economic pain comes from escalating industrial carbon taxes — the hidden costs, buried deep. Those are taxes that Nenshi would likely support, and they are the ones hurting job creators and workers the most.
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