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When I came to Alberta recently to report on upcoming political stories, there was no shortage of people wanting to talk about politics and the May 29 provincial election. , discussions of climate change are largely absent.
[Read from Opinion: There’s No Escape From Wildfire Smoke]
[Read: 12 Million People Are Under a Heat Advisory in the Pacific Northwest]
Smoke from wildfires has blotted out the sun in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver several times in the new year and kept runners, cyclists and walkers indoors. A burning forest, which had burned in the previous fire season, covered the road I was walking in the mountains of Alberta.
I have been to Alberta in 2016 to cover the fire through Fort McMurray, but that fire, almost miraculously, took a life except in a traffic accident. But the fires in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are getting bigger and stronger, and research shows that heat and drought linked to global warming are the main reasons. When the town of Lytton, British Columbia, burned in 2021, the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius.
Poll after poll shows that Albertans are more or less in line with other Canadians on the need to take steps to reduce carbon emissions. But the candidates didn’t say much about it.
During Thursday’s debate between Danielle Smith, the prime minister and leader of the United Conservative Party, and Rachel Notley, the former prime minister and leader of the New Democratic Party, the topic of climate only came up in the context of the economy.
Mrs. Smith repeatedly accused Ms. Notley of springing a “surprise” carbon tax in the province, and warned that any attempt to close emissions will certainly lead to reduced oil production and reduced profits for the province, (assessment is not universally shared by experts. ).
I asked Feodor Snagovsky, a political science professor at the University of Alberta, about the apparent disconnect in Alberta between public opinion on climate change and campaign discourse.
“It is very difficult to talk about oil and gas in Alberta because it is a sort of goose that lays golden eggs,” he said. “This is the source of the extraordinary level of prosperity that the province has enjoyed for so long.”
This year oil and gas revenues will account for 36 percent of all the money the province makes. And during the oil embargo in the late 1970s, these revenues accounted for more than 70 percent of the provincial budget. Among other things, that allows Alberta to be the only province with no sales tax and to maintain income and corporate taxes that are generally lower than other provinces.
But oil and gas production accounts for 28 percent of Canada’s carbon emissions, the country’s largest source. While the amount of carbon released for each barrel of oil has decreased, the increase in total production has more than offset these gains.
The energy industry is also an important source of high-paying jobs. So the suggestion that production must be limited in order for Canada to meet its climate targets is causing alarm.
“People hear it and think: I’m going to lose my job,” Professor Snagovsky said. “It hits people close to home.”
He told us that he was living in Australia in 2020 when the country was hit by extreme heat and wildfires. At the time, Professor Snagovsky said, not only was there very little discussion of climate change, but politicians and others argued that it was not the right time for such a discussion.
Professor Snagovsky said he hopes the fires and smoke will make Albertans think about the climate effects they’re causing, but he’s not sure that will happen.
“I think it’s unlikely, but you can hope,” he said.
Trans Canada
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen studied in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported on Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.
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