Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing firm on federal carbon pricing, telling premiers that the carbon price and associated rebates will rise as planned despite months of relentless attacks by the Conservative Party of Canada and many provinces.
In a letter sent Tuesday afternoon to the prime ministers seen by Canadian National ObserverTrudeau said his government knows Canadians want to fight climate change and stood by that policy.
“The devastating effects of floods, wildfires and droughts are driving up costs annually, destroying homes, devastating communities and inflating prices of food and consumer goods,” the letter reads. “Putting a price on pollution is the basis of any serious plan to fight climate change. “It is the most efficient way to reduce emissions across the economy, from industry to transport, buildings and businesses.”
The letter says “it is critical to dispel the misconception” that the carbon price is raising concerns about affordability and that, according to the Bank of Canada, the carbon price accounts for about 0.1 per cent of annual inflation.
“Since Canada’s carbon pricing system was first introduced in 2019, we have made it clear that we are open to working with any and all provinces and territories that want to establish their own pricing systems (as long as they comply or exceed the national benchmark). ”adds the letter. “The last time we engaged with provinces and territories on this issue was in 2022, none of their governments proposed alternative systems or (with the exception of New Brunswick) proposed systems that did not meet the minimum emissions reduction standard.
“However, we remain open to proposals for credible pollution-pricing systems that reflect the unique realities of their regions and meet the national benchmark.”
Provinces that have demanded a halt to carbon price increases include Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
What people are reading
The letter is the federal government’s strongest response yet to calls from some provinces for a pause in the carbon price increase planned for April 1 from $65 to $80 per ton of CO2.
Since carbon pricing was launched in 2019, the tax on each ton of carbon pollution has increased each year. It started at $20 per ton and, if the planned trajectory is maintained, will rise to $170 per ton by 2030. The purpose of the policy is to steadily make planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions more expensive to incentivize investments in clean alternatives. .
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stands firm on federal carbon pricing, telling premiers the carbon price and associated rebates will rise as planned despite months of relentless attacks from the Conservatives and many provinces . #cdnpoli
At the same time as a carbon tax, Canadians are offered a rebate that returns more money than is taxed to 80 per cent of households. Typically, only the richest Canadians are left penniless due to their disproportionate consumption of fossil fuels.
The carbon price is significantly lower than federal estimates of the “social cost” of carbon, a metric used in cost-benefit analyzes that helps capture the impact of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. It includes things like harms to human health, agricultural productivity, property damage from natural disasters, energy system disruptions, and ecosystem climate benefits.
This year, the federal government Dear All The social cost of a ton of carbon dioxide pollution is $266 and a ton of methane is $2,494.
Trudeau’s response to premiers demanding a price freeze comes as the government’s core climate policy is on life support after months of blistering attacks by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
Poilievre’s policy against carbon prices reached a fever pitch last week when his party tabled a motion calling on the federal government to cancel the planned increase and days later, tabled a no-confidence motion that, if successful, would have brought down the government. . He failed, but the experts said Canadian National Observer did not need to succeed to fulfill its purpose of helping to frame the upcoming election as a referendum on the carbon tax.
As Trudeau tells premiers that carbon pricing will continue as planned, all eyes are on how Ottawa will respond to Saskatchewan after Premier Scott Moe ordered Crown utility SaskEnergy to to waive the carbon tax on consumers, an option to violate federal law. Tuesday’s letter did not specifically reference Saskatchewan.
In late February, Dustin Duncan, minister responsible for SaskEnergy, confirmed the province would not pay the federal carbon pricing tax it owed Ottawa. He said the decision to stop charging customers the carbon tax was a way to offer relief to families following the federal government’s waiver of the federal government’s carbon price on home heating oil, predominantly used in Atlantic Canada.
When Duncan made the comments, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Jonathan Wilkinson said that by opting out of the carbon tax, Saskatchewan residents would lose the rebates being offered. The carbon price rebate would provide $1,500 on average to a family of four in Saskatchewan, notably more than the $400 saved by eliminating the carbon tax that Duncan said would be achieved.
The Saskatchewan government’s decision set the stage for one of the most tense political battles over climate policy this country has ever seen. When Moe first announced that his government would oppose the federal law, Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said Canadian National Observer I was horrified at the prospect.
“This is an extraordinary moment in Canadian democracy that a government, a provincial government, would choose to violate a federal constitutional law,” he said at the time.
In an interview with Canadian National Observer Last week, when the federal government was fending off attacks from Poilievre and seven premiers calling on the federal government to pause carbon pricing at its current level or eliminate it entirely, Wilkinson said responding to Saskatchewan was a “conversation active.”
“It’s not about putting the premier in jail, but there have to be consequences for the province of Saskatchewan, the government of Saskatchewan, if they’re just going to break the law,” he said.
“I find it absolutely appalling that a provincial premier would knowingly break the law, and I simply don’t understand how Premier Moe can get his head around the idea that he can somehow choose which laws to follow and yet expect the citizens of “Saskatchewan to comply with the laws that are passed through the provincial legislature.”