Subhead:If producing a barrel of oil costs more in Canada because of taxes and regulatory requirements that competitors don’t face, investment can shift elsewhere, even if global oil demand remains unchanged.#
Oil is sold into a global commodity market. Companies compete against producers in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Algeria, the UAE and other major exporters. If Canada’s producers face costs that their competitors don’t, that affects investment decisions.
Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie has argued exactly that. And the feds know it.
“The industrial carbon tax is unique to Canada … no other major oil producing nation in the world has one … (it) incents industry to invest outside of Canada” – Jon McKenzie, CEO of Cenovus, the second-largest oil and natural gas producer in Canada.
Business leaders are… pic.twitter.com/2YrDO1QpxQ
— Shannon Stubbs (@ShannonStubbsMP) May 6, 2026
Speaking at the Global Energy Show, McKenzie said Canada is the only one of the world’s 10 largest oil-producing countries with an industrial carbon price on oil and gas production, adding that it “doesn’t incent us to decarbonize; it is solely a cost of doing business.”
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