NewsAlert: Liberals to set carbon price

Given Canada’s ongoing reluctance to address its rising emissions, it is significant that 71% of the respondents agreed, or somewhat agreed, with the statement “A changing climate presents a significant threat to our economic future”. Now it seems to be creeping toward its targets on cat’s paws.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, an outspoken critic of Liberal climate-change policy, lashed out Monday at Justin Trudeau for “unilaterally” imposing a carbon price on provinces and territories. As one provincial official said, it may prove beneficial to let Ottawa impose the “Trudeau Tax” and take all the flak, and then have the province take the revenues and offer politically popular income tax cuts. Both NDP Leader Liz Hanson and Liberal Leader Sandy Silver have been insisting that the federal government will impose a carbon price across the country.

Notley’s NDP is bringing in its own broad-based carbon tax based on the equivalent of $20 per tonne of carbon emissions on January 1.

That puts the vast majority of Canada’s economy under a carbon pricing system – those markets generally price carbon at least at $10 a tonne already. He said Trudeau’s announcement creates more uncertainty as there’s no guarantee the floor price won’t go even higher.

Federal legislators in Ottawa will vote during the week of October 3 on ratification of the Paris Agreement to reduce 2030 carbon emissions by 30% from 2005 levels, a vote that Trudeau’s majority Liberal government is certain to win. Pricing carbon pollution is the new normal.

“At the same time, what they’ve announced today pushes every province a little bit further on carbon pricing and that is a positive”.

Senior Conservative legislator Ed Fast accused the Liberals of “using a sledge hammer to force a carbon tax grab on struggling Canadian families”. That’s torch and pitchfork territory.

I can not believe that while the country’s environment ministers were meeting on a so-called collaborative climate change plan, the Prime Minister stood in the House of Commons and announced a carbon tax unilaterally. But such good will has its limits. Whatever impact the federal carbon tax will have on Canada’s emissions, global GHG emissions will continue to rise because of the developing world’s reliance on coal-fired electricity.

The B.C. minister, like Heurtel, said the working group did not reach a consensus on equivalencies between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade pricing. She was making allies with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and she was beaming with pride in June when U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned Alberta’s climate change progress during a speech to Parliament. Ottawa will implement a price in any jurisdiction that does not have one of its own by 2018.

Notley says “in principle, the Government of Alberta supports a common price that all provinces and territories meet in their climate change plans”.

But Alberta said its support for the plan would be linked to federal support for pending pipeline projects that have yet to be approved.

Notley immediately issued a statement saying, in principle, her government supports a common carbon price.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who oversees the green jobs initiative, has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment.

Trudeau would have known that his plans to force a carbon price on all provinces starting in 2018 would manage to irritate Alberta and infuriate Saskatchewan.