A Powerful Letter to the PM

Laura Sacks, West Kootenay Climate Hub, has worked for years to advocate for climate solutions and better policies for a clean future.

Her anger and frustration directed to PM Carney are clear in this letter she wrote to him in November 2025. Many of us share her emotions and feelings of betrayal.

Mark Carney fast-tracking LNG and mining and other polluting projects (screenshot from CBC September 11)

Dear Prime Minister Carney,

I was first introduced to the term “stranded assets” from your 2015 talk at Lloyd’s of London. At that time, I had decided to shift my time to climate advocacy, putting my career in hydrology on hold and pausing my efforts operating our organic farm. The climate crisis was mostly looming before us back then, but the urgency was very clear. Today the climate crisis is in our face, as we experience ever more climate disasters here in British Columbia, across the country, and around the world.

I was excited that someone who clearly understands the challenges and necessities of shifting from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy was leading the Liberals into the election in the spring. So it's with dismay – and also a feeling of betrayal – that you are actively promoting fossil fuel development in the guise of nation building projects. New LNG facilities, and gas and bitumen pipelines are not clean, and have no place in any ‘grand bargain’ to unite our country. The Trudeau era’s grand bargain tripled the output of Trans Mountain pipeline’s bitumen capacity and resulted in LNG Canada being built – both are now increasing our emissions, while you have gutted and weakened those hard won climate policies. This approach clearly does not work in the long run, and the fossil fuel industry will continue to want more.

There are so many other ways to build prosperity for the economy of the future, where we strive to keep globally heating to the goals of the Paris agreement. Other countries are committed to reducing climate pollution, and an LNG and oil glut are expected as those fuels are phased down. I am sure you have been debriefed on IEA’s latest World Energy Outlook. By committing public dollars and resources to fossil fuel projects, you are risking they become stranded assets. You are also betting on a future where the world does not try to meet climate goals, which is morally reprehensible.

Instead of mega industrial projects, how about we focus on nation building projects that invest in our many communities across the country who are financially struggling to implement climate solutions. Here are some ideas that create jobs, local prosperity, climate resilience and Canadian sovereignty:

• Build an east-west clean energy grid that ties our many disjointed grids together and is fed by local renewable energy and storage projects distributed across the country.

• Implement the many local “shovel ready” Active Transportation plans across the country to create walking and cycling networks that make our communities safer, healthier and more accessible.

• Invest in public transit so that we can get around efficiently between and within our communities without needing a car, dovetailing with active transportation projects.

• Reinstate the Greener Homes Grant to help fund energy efficiency, rooftop solar with batteries, and heat pumps so people and communities are more resilient to climate change.

These are just a few ideas that would make Canadians proud to be part of solutions that can happen right here in our communities, rather than in remote areas  – where profits usually go to large (often foreign owned) corporations with no guarantee they will “trickle down” to our communities. We need to be looking beyond the tired colonial model of prosperity, where we export our raw materials at a discount and trample on indigenous rights.

Just a few days ago at COP30, a group of countries advocating for a pathway to phase out fossil fuels announced they will be meeting at an international conference in Colombia in the new year. Disappointedly, I don’t see Canada on the list of countries committed to this phase out. I ask that Canada joins this coalition, attends that conference and be actively part of solutions to the climate crisis, instead of committing to climate collapse. Including fossil fuel projects on your list of nation building projects – and making this appalling side deal with Premier Danielle Smith –  is betting on climate failure, which will result in untold suffering and a much less secure Canada and world than today’s. The other outcome would be stranded assets – a disaster for taxpayers and an embarrassment to your legacy.

I truly hope someone reads this letter. I have recently felt cynical that personal letters make little difference, given the huge amount of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. But that just feeds into the narrative of helplessness and despair that our government does not care what people think. I’m not ready to give up on our democracy yet. So thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,

Laura Sacks