Justin Trudeau's main challenger in the Canadian elections on Thursday vowed to roll back environmental protections, including a federal carbon tax, if he wins the October polls.

In a speech in Toronto laying out his economic vision, Andrew Scheer lamented a lack of new pipeline capacity to get increased Canadian oil production to foreign markets and roadblocks to resources development.

"We have what most countries could only dream of... a rich abundance of a finite resource the world demands, and under Trudeau, we're squandering it," the Conservative party leader said.

If elected, Scheer vowed to cancel a federal carbon tax imposed April 1 on provinces that failed to put significant curbs on their CO2 emissions.

He also said he would end a tanker traffic ban along a pristine part of Canada's Pacific coast, repeal environmental assessment legislation currently before parliament that critics say is too stringent, and dedicate a coast-to-coast right-of-way for pipelines.

"Canada should be a country of yes. Yes to more responsible resource exploration. Yes to more pipeline construction," Scheer said.

Four Tory-led provinces have lined up against the federal carbon backstop, which aims to help Ottawa meet its Paris treaty target of reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

Trudeau had reached a deal with oil-rich Alberta province to impose its own carbon tax as well as a cap on CO2 emissions from its oil sands -- the world's third-largest oil reserve and the single largest polluter in the country.

In exchange, his government last year purchased a controversial pipeline expansion project to move Alberta oil to the Pacific coast for shipping overseas.

A cabinet decision on whether the Trans Mountain pipeline project will proceed is due in June, while a new Tory government in Alberta is planning to scrap its carbon tax and fight the federal backstop.

All of this comes as parliament on Thursday debated a Liberal non-binding motion declaring a national climate emergency and committing Canada to meet its CO2 reduction target.

Recent polls show the Tories slightly ahead of the Liberals.

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