Carbon tax set to rise in 2018, then hold steady until ’21
Albertans will see a hike to the provincial carbon tax in the new year, but the next increase won’t come until at least 2021, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Friday.
Under the NDP government’s climate leadership plan, the broadbased carbon levy, introduced at a rate of $20 per tonne at the start of this year, will increase to $30 per tonne on Jan. 1, 2018.
“Thereafter, our carbon price increases will track with the federal legislation that will be in place at that time,” said Phillips at a federal funding announcement.
“We’ve been clear about that from Day 1.”
Under the federal Liberal government’s plan mandating carbon pricing initiatives by the province, the tax would only move to $40 in 2021. In 2022, the price is slated to increase to $50 per tonne.
The Trudeau government originally planned to impose a mandatory carbon price of $10 per tonne in 2018, but federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Friday that provinces will only have to submit their plans by the end of next year.
Alberta is already compliant with the federal scheme, but the provincial carbon tax is no done deal. United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney has pledged to repeal the carbon tax in his first piece of legislation as premier if the UCP wins the 2019 provincial election.
In his speech after winning the Calgary- Lougheed byelection Thursday night, Kenney reiterated his call for the NDP to not move ahead with the carbon levy increase due on Jan. 1.
The NDP says axing the carbon levy would simply leave Alberta subject to a federal carbon pricing plan, rather than an initiative designed in Alberta.
Phillips made her comments at an announcement of $150 million in federal funding for Alberta for climate change projects, as part of the federal government’s $1.4 billion Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund.
The provincial government will reveal the specific projects that will receive support in the new year, but Phillips said the money will go to investments in areas such as affordable housing retrofits, new Indigenous climate leadership initiatives and industrial energy-efficiency measures.
“We had to put forward proposals to the federal government. We had to show they were additive to our efforts. The good news is we already had a number of programs in place,” she said.
Liberal cabinet minister Kent Hehr said such initiatives are crucial to lowering greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to fight climate change, but are still compatible with a healthy energy industry that is so important to Calgary.
“It takes compromise, it takes hard work, but it is possible,” said Hehr, the MP for Calgary Centre and minister for sports and persons with disabilities.