Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, had been planning a trip to Alberta since 2020, but it was continually sidelined by the pandemic. She finally made it to the province this summer and says there was, in fact, no better time to visit.
For instance, she said, she’s getting the word out in U.S. policy-making circles that companies representing about 95 per cent of Alberta’s oil sands production have pledged to hit net-zero emissions by 2050. “It’s not widely understood,” she said. Still, it’s always a difficult task for a Canadian official to get an American lawmaker’s attention. And although the U.S. buys more than half of its oil imports from Canada, it doesn’t usually think much about its northern neighbour in terms of energy – except when it comes to oil pipelines that have become symbols of the fight against climate change.
“Both the U.S. and Canada are taking full steps to reduce greenhouse gases and both are on a path to energy transition. But as we know, as Americans know, that transition is going to take some time.” From a Central Canadian perspective, the most significant change to the bill is that the final version removed a provision that would have excluded vehicles made outside the U.S. from qualifying for generous new consumer tax incentives. Now the incentives apply to North American-made vehicles – a big win for Canadian officials and industry leaders.