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If Canada’s emission-reduction targets came without significant practical cost, it might make sense to plow ahead. But the costs, in fact, are high. The impact of the oil price collapse has affected tens of thousands of families in Alberta, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, with reverberations well beyond provincial borders. The intensity of the pain is such that Alberta’s New Democratic Party government, perhaps the most left-wing in the country, is now an outspoken champion of new pipelines to carry Alberta crude and revive its energy industry.

Despite calls for caution, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pressed ahead with efforts to establish a national carbon plan. Last month Ottawa gave the provinces until 2018 to produce a scheme to put a price on carbon, or have one imposed on them. Though the biggest provinces all have existing carbon taxes, or are in the process of introducing them, the premiers nonetheless resisted Ottawa’s demand, arguing it intruded on provincial powers and could push businesses to relocate in the U.S.

That argument becomes much more potent in light of the Trump agenda. “It makes no sense for our federal government to push ahead with imposing a national carbon tax, when our biggest trading partner – and our biggest competitor for investment and jobs – is not going to have one,” said Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.

His point is sound. Finance Minister Bill Morneau maintains U.S. plans are “speculative” and won’t respond substantively to queries on Ottawa’s response. But sticking its fingers in its ears is unlikely to get the government very far. Everything about Trump is “speculative” at this point; that does not free Trudeau of the responsibility to prepare the country to deal with the consequences.

Pressing ahead with a costly program that is likely to have negligible impact while undermining Canadian competitiveness and endangering jobs is not a responsible or sensible way to act. Ottawa is going to have to accept that life has changed since last Tuesday’s election, and it has no choice but to recognize that reality.

National Post