As concerns about a scheduled increase to the federal carbon price grow, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says provinces are welcome to come up with their own policies, as long as the federal minimum pollution price is used.
His comments come as the Ontario Liberals are the latest provincial party to call for a change to the federal carbon price — with leader Bonnie Crombie saying a government she leads would not have a provincial carbon price similar to the federal model.
“We put in the place the federal system, so provinces that didn’t want to do it wouldn’t have to do it,” Guilbeault told reporters before Question Period Tuesday.
“My understanding of her position is that she would be happy to fall back to the federal system.”
But speaking in Queen’s Park Tuesday, Crombie said the mandate she is giving the party’s new climate change panel is to develop a policy that doesn’t have an economy-wide carbon price.
“We said, ‘Please evaluate all measures, all opportunities, look broadly, look abroad.’ What’s being done that we can adopt and emulate that won’t cost Ontario families that are already burdened, that can’t handle more taxation, but polluters are held accountable,” Crombie said.
Currently, Ontario does have its own policy in place for heavy industrial emitters that charges a carbon price. The federal fuel charge is in place for things like gasoline and heating homes, since these are not covered by provincial policy.
The Supreme Court of Canada famously ruled in March 2021 that the federal government has the constitutional authority to establish a minimum pollution price.
Why are carbon price tensions flaring?
The April 1 carbon price increase from $65 per tonne to $80 per tonne has taken centre stage in Parliament this week.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre introduced a motion in the House of Commons Tuesday to stop the scheduled increase which is set to come up for a vote on Wednesday.
He argues that the pricing model in place costs Canadians more than they get back in rebates, which the federal Liberals say is not the case for most Canadians.
Guilbeault on Tuesday said that climate change has its own costs that tax dollars go toward, such as responses to floods and wildfires — which the B.C. government said Monday are expected to start early this year.
University of Alberta economist Andrew Leach tells Global News that the current cost of living crisis makes selling a carbon price a difficult challenge for the federal government.
“The political challenge of carbon pricing is that it puts [it] right up front. This is the implication for using one extra litre of gas or one extra gigajoule of natural gas in your home heating. These are the emissions implications. Other policies would hide that in behind,” he said.
Leach pointed to Poilievre’s campaign pitch to “axe the tax” and remove the federal carbon price. Instead, the Tory leader talks about addressing climate change through technology like nuclear power and carbon capture.
“Those still have a cost. They just don’t appear on the receipt you get from the gas pump,” Leach said.
In the current context, Leach said opposition to the carbon price can become an easy question for voters if it is framed around whether they feel life is getting too expensive.
“Mr. Poilievre has successfully framed it in that way. He hasn’t let it be framed as, ‘Do you want to take action on climate change or not? Do you want this quarterly rebate check or not?’ He’s framed it very simply as, ‘I can drop your gas prices,’” Leach said.
Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Premier Andrew Furey voiced concern about the increase to the carbon price set to kick in on April 1 last week, echoed by conservative premiers as well.
And the Ontario Liberals now appear to be distancing themselves from their federal cousins’ policy.
Ottawa South Liberal MPP John Fraser said Monday that families aren’t seeing the benefit of the rebates touted by the federal government.
“Families don’t see that. They don’t recognize that. It could be a challenge in communication. The reality is that if you want to go somewhere, if you want to make change you have to bring people with you. If you can’t bring people with you, you’re not going to be successful in that change,” Fraser said at Queen’s Park.
Back in Ottawa, when Guilbeault was asked why people aren’t buying in on the rebates he attributed it to communication.
“I think we can always do better when it comes to communication on climate change,” Guilbeault said.
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