CALGARY—In the middle of a heated Alberta election campaign, the two main party leaders in the race paused from taking shots at each other to aim at a Toronto city councillor.

Toronto’s Mike Layton is bringing a motion to city council this week asking for a report on the cost implications of climate change for Toronto and “any legal avenues to pursue compensation for those costs from major greenhouse gas emitters.”

A week into Alberta’s 2019 provincial race, that didn’t sit well with Alberta’s United Conservatives or New Democrats, and both parties have put Layton in their crosshairs.

The motion — which still has yet to even be discussed in Toronto, and could end up instead being referred to a committee — says the city should consider taking major oil companies to court over climate-change related costs Toronto bears.

“Just like tobacco companies knew their products caused cancer, but hid that information from the public, major oil companies have known for decades that their products would cause climate change,” the motion reads. “As tobacco companies have been held accountable for the health-care costs associated with smoking, big polluters should have to pay their fair share for building a climate-safe city.”

UCP Leader Jason Kenney took the move as a direct attack on Alberta’s energy industry, publicly posting a four-page letter addressed to Toronto Mayor John Tory on Tuesday.

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Kenney slammed the motion as “hypocritical and divisive,” describing it as an open attack on Canadian energy producers. He said it harms “national unity” and even raised the spectre of how he sees it stoking Alberta separatist sentiment.

“The adoption of Councillor Layton’s motion would be seen by most Albertans as another example of a campaign to attack and vilify the essential role that our province plays in the Canadian economy,” Kenney said. “It would pour yet more gas on the flames of the growing national unity challenge.”

Hours later, NDP Leader Rachel Notley also condemned Layton’s motion, writing on Twitter that “it’s clear Mike Layton is out of touch with Canada’s economic reality and doesn’t see Alberta’s contributions because he has tunnel vision.”

She added that Layton would be “wise to read the federal budget and see exactly what Alberta contributes to Confederation.”

Layton wrote on Twitter Tuesday that his motion has been “taken out of context,” adding that he’s simply asking for a report on climate-change costs and options for recouping them. A spokesperson from his office said he was not available for an interview Wednesday, as Toronto city council is in an all-day meeting.

But Layton is the son of former federal NDP leader Jack Layton, and Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said that connection to the climate-change motion serves up a “gift to Kenney.”

“They couldn’t have asked for someone better than Mike Layton to go after,” he said.

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“(The UCP) is trying to link that he speaks for Rachel Notley,” he said. “For them, this is proof that if Rachel Notley ever gets elected again, she will completely shut down the oil and gas sector in this province.”

Kenney began talking about strategies to “fight back” on behalf of Alberta’s energy industry last October, vowing to create a “war room” to issue real-time responses to “lies and myths” about the province’s oil and gas producers. He officially announced the initiative, with a $30-million budget, as part of his election platform just last week.

Bratt said that even though Layton’s motion has yet to even hit the floor in council chambers three provinces away, it opens a campaigning opportunity for Kenney.

“It’s part of (the UCP) platform to fight the rest of the country, and this just allows them to demonstrate how they’d do it. We’re seeing this play out in real time — how that would work.”

Similar climate-change motions from municipalities in British Columbia have raised Calgary city council’s hackles in the past.

When city council in Victoria, B.C., voted earlier this year to ask the Union of BC Municipalities to explore legal action against international oil companies, Calgary councillors were critical — Councillor Ward Sutherland issued an “Alberta challenge” to Victoria politicians, extending an offer for them to come to Alberta for a tour led by advocacy group Canada Action to highlight the ethical and environmental standards of Alberta’s energy industry.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps ended up taking Sutherland’s offer. She’ll visit a project south of Fort McMurray in the spring.

Last year, Calgary city council unanimously passed a motion declaring formal support for Alberta’s energy industry and the construction of new pipelines.

Shortly before that, councillors also used their own office budgets to pay a PR consultant to produce videos and a social media campaign in support of oil and gas in the province.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi also wrote a letter to Victoria city council in January to say Calgary stands with Alberta’s energy industry.

Councillor Sean Chu made the request for that letter, and he said Wednesday that he plans to ask for the same in response to the Toronto motion, calling it “the stupidest thing.”

“I would like to invite Councillor Layton to ride his bicycle to Calgary and see how we do business here,” he said.

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