An export tax would make Alberta oil more expensive, weaken its competitiveness and invite American retaliation. It would also undermine Canada’s reputation as a reliable energy supplier while giving U.S. refiners another reason to seek crude from hostile regimes such as Venezuela.
Politics makes strange bedfellows, but few stranger than former Alberta Conservative premier Jason Kenney and federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis.
Lewis told CBC that Canada should impose export taxes on oil and gas, calling Alberta’s energy industry the country’s “biggest piece of leverage” in the escalating trade war with the United States.
Avi Lewis: "We've been calling for export taxes on oil and gas for many months now because it's our biggest piece of leverage. We have to use what leverage we have. We're a twelfth the size economically of the party across the table." pic.twitter.com/TP9ZPx0el1
— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson_) September 8, 2026
Kenney has landed on the same policy. The former premier said Ottawa should consider a “prospective export tax” on oil, natural gas and potash if the United States further escalates the dispute.
Kenney described his proposal as a conditional and potentially modest measure, while Lewis is actively campaigning for export taxes. But the distinction offers little comfort to Alberta workers and producers who would ultimately pay the price.
An export tax would make Alberta oil more expensive, weaken its competitiveness and invite American retaliation. It would also undermine Canada’s reputation as a reliable energy supplier while giving U.S. refiners another reason to seek crude from hostile regimes such as Venezuela.
Premier Danielle Smith called taxing Alberta’s oil “a disastrous policy decision,” warning that Washington could retaliate against gasoline and diesel shipments to Central Canada and that Alberta could permanently lose customers. Alberta exported nearly $111 billion worth of oil to the United States in 2025.
Canada’s real vulnerability is not that it sells too much Alberta oil. It is that decades of federal obstruction left Alberta with too few pipelines and too few customers.
Instead of punishing the industry keeping Canada’s economy afloat, governments should build export infrastructure and give Alberta producers access to the highest bidder.
Avi Lewis supporting taxes on Alberta energy is entirely predictable. Jason Kenney joining him is the shocker.
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