Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's announcement could be a potential breakthrough for decarbonization, writes Michael Bernstein.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Michael Bernstein is president and chief executive of Clean Prosperity.

The memorandum of understanding signed last week between the federal and Alberta governments was promptly attacked by climate advocates as a betrayal of climate action in Canada.

Chief among them was MP Steven Guilbeault, formerly a Trudeau-era environment minister, who called the deal a “serious mistake” and resigned from cabinet.

Respectfully, critics of the agreement are wrong. The historic announcement is actually a potential breakthrough for decarbonization. Canada’s progress on emissions reduction was stuck in a ditch, and the Ottawa-Alberta “grand bargain” just put it back on the road.

That’s because the former stack of federal climate policies wasn’t working. Those policies became a Jenga tower of overlapping and uninvestable regulation that was destined to topple.

What’s worse is that policies such as the oil and gas emissions cap and Clean Electricity Regulations inflamed tensions with Western Canada. The result was political gridlock and little in the way of emissions reductions.

Opinion: The Canada-Alberta deal is good policy, and probably good politics, too

© The Globe and Mail