Trudeau’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, has begun work on a response to President Joe Biden’s plan amid escalating concerns that more generous incentives will pull capital south of the border.
The US legislation puts Canada in a bind. Under Trudeau, the country passed a national carbon price and uses a mix of sticks and carrots to push industries to decarbonize. The US has largely neglected the sticks, but is now pointing a firehose of money — at least $370 billion, or nearly C$500 billion — at the green transition that risks undermining Canada’s own effort to build low-carbon industries.
A parliamentary committee is studying the matter, with steelmakers, auto manufacturers, trade unions, fuel producers and many other lobby groups called to testify.
“The IRA is the most audacious public policy instrument ever introduced to decarbonize a major economy,” Bob Masterson, chief executive officer of the Chemistry…


