The current carbon tax debate is important — it's just not serious

Officially, the meeting was being held to study a section of the main estimates — the initial spending allocations the government lays before Parliament each spring — for a dozen federal agencies and departments.

A day later, Higgs and Smith put forward similar ideas — arguing that if Canada exported more natural gas, it might be used to displace dirtier coal power in other countries.

19 hours agoPremier Blaine Higgs, testifying at federal committee about the carbon tax hike — which he opposes — made a push for exporting LNG to Europe, saying there's increasing demand for the liquified natural gas in countries like the Czech Republic.

While the premiers were testifying this week, more than 300 Canadian economists were signing an open letter expressing support for carbon pricing and challenging some of the arguments made against the existing policy.

With the premiers apparently so eager to discuss climate policy, it's tempting to wonder what might be clarified and accomplished if they were all invited to Ottawa for a televised meeting — with the expectation that they would arrive with a fully costed and independently analyzed plan for how their province would reduce its emissions in line with Canada's national targets.

In the meantime, there's nothing stopping Poilievre from submitting his own climate plan to the parliamentary budget officer for a study of its economic and fiscal impacts before sending it to a private firm to project its emissions reductions.