‘The level of disrespect shown by the Prime Minister and his government today is stunning’: Brad Wall

Premier Brad Wall is ripping into the federal government after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement of a federal tax on carbon emissions Monday.

“I cannot 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,” Wall said in a statement.

“This meeting is not worth the CO2 emissions it took for environment ministers to get there,” the statement continued. “The level of disrespect shown by the Prime Minister and his government today is stunning. This is a betrayal of the statements made by the Prime Minister in Vancouver this March. And this new tax will damage our economy.”

Wall called it “one of the largest national tax increases in Canadian history,” saying Saskatchewan would investigate “all options” to mitigate the impact.

Environment ministers  from Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador walked out of the meeting Monday with federal counterpart Catherine McKenna before what was to have been a joint photo opportunity.

“We’re struggling to understand where the PM’s message came from today and what’s going to happen moving forward,” said Margaret Miller, explaining Nova Scotia feels let down and surprised. 

In a statement, Miller said Nova Scotia has already met Canada’s target of a 30 per cent reduction in emissions from 2005 by 2030, and has hoped the province would be spared carbon pricing.

In stark contrast, the B.C. reaction was complacent to the point of smugness.

“B.C.’s carbon tax is the highest and most comprehensive carbon price in North America,” said Environment Minister Mary Polak. “But we need other jurisdictions to catch up to our carbon price before we raise our carbon tax, to ensure B.C. remains a competitive place to invest.”

The B.C. government has already said its carbon tax will start increasing only in four years when the rest of the country catches up to the current levy of $30 a tonne.

Trudeau announced on Monday the federal government would establish a “floor price” of $10 a tonne on carbon pollution in 2018. That price will rise to $50 a tonne by 2022.

Trudeau gave the provinces just two options for implementing the carbon price: Either impose their own direct price on carbon that meets or exceeds the national floor price, as British Columbia has already done, or set up a cap and trade system, such as Ontario and Quebec are developing.

If provinces don’t play along, Trudeau said, a tax would be implemented by the federal government on them. Any revenue generated from the tax, Trudeau told the House of Commons, would stay in the province it came from.

“There is no hiding from climate change,” he told the Commons on Monday. “It is real and it is everywhere.”

“We cannot undo the last 10 years of inaction. What we can do is make a real and honest effort — today and every day — to protect the health of our environment and, with it, the health of all Canadians.”

Trudeau’s pre-emptive announcement landed like a grenade in the midst of the environment ministers’ meeting in Montreal, where federal minister Catherine McKenna was supposed to be hashing out an agreement on carbon pricing with her provincial counterparts.
“The air was sucked out of the room,” Yukon’s Currie Dixon said of Trudeau’s announcement.

Moe suggested the federal government forcing a tax could be on par with Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program, which was introduced in 1980 and led to ongoing animosity between western provinces and the federal Liberals.

“Many westerners will see this as National Energy Program 2.0,” he said.

Moe said the carbon tax will cost each family in the province about $1,250 a year and the province $2.5 billion, while at the same time threatening jobs in the energy sector.

Wall has long said the province cannot afford a carbon tax, especially since the energy sector is already seeing lower profits.

“As I have said many times before, we are having the wrong conversation in Canada,” Wall said in his statement. “The national focus on carbon pricing holds the lowest potential for reducing emissions, while potentially doing the greatest harm to the Canadian economy. We produce less than two per cent of global GHG emissions. 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. __canada can make an important contribution in the battle against climate change by developing made-in-Canada solutions in areas like power production, transportation, natural resource development, manufacturing and construction.”

Wall had previously threatened legal action against the federal government imposing a tax on provincial crown corporations, such as SaskEnergy.

“We’ll have to look at what our opportunities are,” said Moe, when asked about the possibility of a legal challenge on Monday.

While Alberta’s NDP government supports a common price on carbon across the country, Premier Rachel Notley served notice that she’ll oppose the federal plan until she sees “serious concurrent progress” on the pipelines that her province needs to get its oil sands crude to tidewater.

“Albertans have contributed very generously for many years to national initiatives to help other regions address economic challenges,” Notley said in a written statement.
“What we are asking for now is that our landlock be broken, in one direction or another, so that we can get back on our feet.”
Quebec’s David Heurtel, the chairman of the meeting, and Ontario’s Glen Murray both welcomed the new federal policy, saying it fully recognizes their provincial jurisdiction.

With files from Vaughn Palmer of theVancouver Sun, and the Canadian Press