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Conservative MP Michelle Rempel is taking aim at some of the country’s biggest energy companies over their support for a carbon tax.

The Liberal government announced Monday that it will require provinces to implement a minimum $10-a-tonne price on carbon by 2018 — rising to $50 a tonne by 2022 — through either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.

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A number of major energy producers havebacked the concept of a carbon tax — though not the specifics of the Liberal plan — as the best tool to reduce emissions.

Companies such as Cenovus, Suncor, CNRL and Shell Canada publicly supported Alberta’s NDP government when it unveiled its climate strategy, which includes a broad-based carbon tax that will come into effect Jan. 1.

In the House of Commons this week, Rempel, the MP for Calgary-Nose Hill, said “the few rich CEOs of Canada’s big energy firms probably support their tax because it may force junior firms out of the market, enabling them to make a play for assets.”

In an interview Wednesday, Rempel reiterated that large oilpatch players have already priced in a carbon tax into the cost of operations in their business model, while smaller energy companies have less ability to do so.

“Is there an opportunity to scoop assets there? I don’t know, but you have to question motivation,” said the former federal cabinet minister, who denied she was accusing the big energy companies of predatory practices.