No carbon tax unless the U.S. has one: Painted Pony CEO

The chief executive of a Canadian natural gas producer says he wouldn't be against a carbon tax — if the U.S. had one in place.

Painted Pony Petroleum CEO Patrick Ward told BNN that Ottawa's proposed levy on carbon would hurt Canada's competitiveness against its southern neighbour's energy sector, which U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to deregulate.

"We have to be competitive with our producers in the U.S.," Ward said. "If they're not going to impose taxes, there has to be [something to] offset that for Canadian producers to stay competitive."

But Ward also said that even though he's concerned about a tax's impact on competitiveness, he isn't against the concept.

"My philosophy is if the Americans put on a carbon tax, we should put on a carbon tax," he said. "But without one it's hard. Same thing with Methane."

Ward is in favour of maintaining the environment, but he believes Canada should also do more to become an attractive place for investors.

“Canada is very resource rich and capital poor, so we have got to do these things to instill investment into our resources switch,” he said.