Saskatchewan's vow to axe industrial carbon tax tests climate targets during federal election
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's promise to eliminate the industrial carbon tax, and move away from the province's own climate plans, opens the door to a potential federal election issue.
Late Wednesday, Moe announced the Saskatchewan government would eliminate its provincial industrial carbon tax, known as the Output-Based Performance Standards (OBPS) program, on April 1. Implementing the change alongside the federal government's plan to cut the consumer carbon tax the same day, Moe said Saskatchewan would be a carbon-tax free province.
If removed, the federal government could impose a federal industrial carbon tax in its place, something University of Alberta economics and law Prof. Andrew Leach does not expect the 'caretaker' government in place for the election to do.
During an election period, a convention of the government functions in its place until a new government is sworn in or an incumbent is re-elected.
Leach said the federal government has the jurisdiction to impose carbon pricing, but it's a political decision.
"There's almost no chance that the federal government is going to do that now," he told CBC's Alexander Quon.
"That would probably go, I would think, beyond your caretaker convention during a federal election; but, more importantly, I don't think that Mr. Carney's going to want to shift the ballot question to that right now."
Ditching industrial tax is abandoning climate goals: economist
Brett Dolter, an associate professor of economics at the University of Regina, sees Saskatchewan's divergence from the industrial carbon tax as knocking down the second of three pillars in the province's climate change plan.
In December 2017, Saskatchewan launched its climate change strategy, entitled Prairie Resilience.
For Dolter, there are three main pillars to that plan: methane capture, its industrial carbon emissions tax and cleaner electricity production.
By cutting the tax, one is knocked down. Dolter also sees another tumbling.
Earlier this year, the Saskatchewan government directed SaskPower to create a plan for power generation that could include extending the lives of its coal-fired power plants. That's among the issues affecting its electricity goals, he said.
Without the emissions tax, operating those power plants would be a lot more affordable, Dolter said. He said running coal power plants is going to steer the province away from its goal of reducing its emission production from its electricity generation by 40 per cent.
"It's starting to look like Prairie Resilience is more like prairie obstinance. We're just getting climate policy out of the picture here in Saskatchewan," he said.
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