Poor Colpy and the Rexbots.
Always wrong.
Always wrong.
John Ivison: Trudeau outsmarts opponents on carbon pricing
When it was first elected, this Liberal government was like a bull wearing hobnail boots on the climate change file. Now it seems to be creeping toward its targets on cat’s paws.
All provinces and territories will be obliged to set a minimum price of $10 a tonne of carbon emitted in 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Monday, rising $10 each year to $50 per tonne in 2022.
“Pollution crosses borders, so all provinces must do their part,” he said. There were nonetheless splutters of outrage from some provincial capitals as he confirmed the federal government will impose a minimum price on provinces or territories that don’t initiate one themselves.
Brad Wall, the most outspoken of Trudeau’s provincial critics, accused the prime minister of showing “disrespect” by unilaterally announcing a carbon tax even as the country’s environment ministers were meeting in Montreal to discuss a “collaborative climate change plan.”
Wall pointed out Canada is plowing ahead with carbon pricing without having any clear idea what is going to happen in the U.S. “In the coming weeks, Saskatchewan will investigate all options to mitigate the impact of one of the largest national tax increases in Canadian history,” he said.
British Columbia already has a tax of $30 a tonne, so it can sit pat until 2021, while Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are engaged in their own carbon-pricing plans. But for several provinces, the indignation at what many consider Ottawa’s flagrant breach of jurisdiction will have been tempered by the modest nature of the pricing plan. Rumours before Monday’s announcement had suggested a much higher floor price.
The federal government has been persuaded to put some dilbit in its bitumen by the hard economic and political realities that were absent in opposition. Though the Liberals first decried the Harper government’s targets, calling a goal of reducing emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 “false” — they have quietly adopted them.
Now it appears their carbon pricing plan will not even hit those relatively modest goals.
To make good that target, pricing experts like Simon Fraser University’s Mark Jaccard have estimated a floor price would need to be set at $30 a tonne, increasing every year until it hit $200 a tonne by 2030. A carbon price at that level would add somewhere in the region of 50 cents on a litre of fuel. That’s torch and pitchfork territory.
Polls suggest there is overwhelming support for the idea of carbon pricing, and that many Canadians back the imposition of a national climate change target. Trudeau alluded to that generosity of spirit when he said Canadians are prepared to work together and follow through on the commitments to fighting climate change made in the Paris Agreement on climate change. But such good will has its limits.
Environmental groups rushed Monday to condemn the planned price as being too low to take a bite out of Canada’s emissions. Dale Marshall of Environmental Defence said the carbon price needs to rise at the same rate beyond 2022 — a point on which Trudeau was mute.
Douglas Russell, an energy consultant and former climate change negotiator for the Canadian government, called the plan a “delicately crafted piece of work” that establishes a precedent for carbon pricing and recognizes the work already done by some provinces.
The genius from Ottawa’s point of view is that the price is so low that many of the provinces will decide to climb on board, once they have had a good moan and tried to wheedle whatever concession is top of their respective wish lists.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley issued a statement saying her province supports the concept of national carbon pricing, but won’t back the plan without progress on pipelines. She will surely be looking for federal approval for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, on which cabinet will decide by year’s end.
In the House of Commons, the surprise announcement of a carbon floor price went as well as could be expected for the government.
To Trudeau’s credit, a major policy was unveiled in the people’s forum, kicking off a three-day debate on climate change, which will be followed by a vote.
Conservative critic Ed Fast accused Trudeau of “lowering the boom” on the provinces through a “sledgehammer” pricing plan that would force the provinces to accept a carbon tax grab. The NDP’s Linda Duncan said the Liberals had “backtracked” by adopting the Harper government’s emissions targets.
The criticism from left and right created a comfortable sweet spot for the prime minister.
“The NDP thinks we are not going far enough. The Conservatives think we have gone too far. I think, and most Canadians think, we have got the right balance,” Trudeau said.
Given the general acceptance among voters that the time is right for carbon pricing, not to mention the relatively muted response to the low floor price from the provinces, it suggests the Conservatives have need of a better game plan than simply criticizing Trudeau’s “massive tax grab.”
John Ivison: Trudeau outsmarts opponents on carbon pricing
