Carney ‘will have to answer’ questions about flip-flop on tax credit, Liberal MP says

By Canadian Press on December 3, 2025.

OTTAWA — A British Columbia Liberal MP says Prime Minister Mark Carney “will have to answer” why he reversed a budget commitment on tax credits when he signed the Alberta pipeline deal.

The memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and Alberta extends federal tax credits for carbon capture to enhanced oil recovery, overturning a commitment made in the recent federal budget not to do so.

Speaking to reporters on his way into a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday, Liberal MP Patrick Weiler said Canada has a “a pretty clear stance” to move away from inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and extending tax credits to enhanced oil recovery is a “step in the wrong direction.”

Environmentalists see the extension of the tax credits to enhanced oil recover as a direct subsidy of oil production, while the industry says tax measures are not subsidies.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she only voted for the budget because the government assured her it would not abandon its promise to withhold the tax credits from enhanced oil recovery.

May told The Canadian Press last week the flip-flop amounted to a “significant betrayal” and she now questions the worth of Carney’s commitments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2025.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press