CALGARY, AB, Oct. 2, 2025 /CNW/ – In response to a speech given by Governor Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Sept. 23, 2025, Friends of Science Society have issued an open letter to him, challenging Macklem’s claims that Canadians just have to “roll up their sleeves.” The presentation to the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership and the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce explored the shifting multi-polar nature of global trade, but did not reflect the realities facing Canadian businesses, Friends of Science Society claimed, including the impending risk of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and renewed carbon taxes.
In a Jan. 30, 2025, press release, Friends of Science Society advised Canadians that the federal government was pushing for alignment with the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Former federal public servant and diplomat, Robert Lyman, had warned at the time that such a move would be seen as “a red flag to the Trump administration bull.” Likewise, CBAM requires a price on carbon as well as onerous, expensive, double-verified emissions reporting. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney zero-ed the consumer facing carbon tax once in office, but he did not cancel it.
On Sept. 30, 2025, just days after Macklem’s presentation, CNBC reported that global trade would be shaken up when the world’s first carbon border tax goes live in the European Union on Jan. 01, 2026.
Another key point of contention is that Macklem has been quick to frame the current tariff issues with the US as a “trade war” but neither he nor the Bank of Canada have ever recognized the ~30 year-long foreign and domestic-funded Tar Sands Campaign against the Alberta oil sands, which has done significant reputational and economic damage to all of Canada. The Tar Sands Campaign green trade war is documented in Friends of Science Society’s 2019 report “Fear and Loathing; The Alberta Oil Sands – from national pride to international pariah.“
Retired energy economist, Robert Lyman, also criticized Macklem’s speech in a commentary titled “Elbows Up and Roll Up Your Sleeves,” posted on Friends of Science Society’s blog.
As UK energy analyst Tammy Nemeth writes in a Real Clear Energy article of Oct. 1, 2025, the EU is also imposing strict corporate emissions reporting guidelines, known as Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, or “CS3D.” Nemeth points out that, “The promise of CS3D was always predicated on the notion that Europe, and multinational businesses, could afford to bear the cost of being the world’s climate conscience.”
