Earlier this month, the federal government quietly released its annual inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with data up to 2024 now. The news was not good. Carbon pollution reduction effectively stalled in 2024 (down a measly 0.3 per cent from the previous year and down only 10 per cent from 2005).

Canada, simply put, is not on the trajectory on which we need to be. And with oil and gas production on the rise and the new LNG Canada plant firing up in 2025, there is no reason to believe we are on the cusp of turning the tide in this race to protect the people and places we love. (Thankfully, other countries are acting with considerably more gusto than we are.)

Why, then, have federal and provincial policies thus far been so manifestly unsuccessful at significantly bending the curve on our GHG emissions?

A core reason, I contend, is that if you survey our government policies to date, most of them have one thing in common — they are voluntary. Our governments’ current approach is to incentivize our way to victory. They offer rebates and tax credits. They seek to encourage and cajole businesses and households to transition off fossil fuels. It's not working. We've been at this for decades, and our emissions have barely flatlined with still more new fossil fuel projects on the horizon.

This is no way to prosecute the fight of our lives.

Instead of making climate action voluntary, a government aligned with the emergency before us would make climate action and the energy transition mandatory, with robust and enforceable regulations, and not in some distant future, but now.

Our prime minister, however, is instead doubling down on what has clearly been a failed approach. The Carney government’s new Climate Competitiveness Strategy (released as part of last........

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