Ont. gov’t won’t share in proceeds of carbon tax

Ontario residents, and not the newly-elected Progressive Conservative government, will receive the proceeds of a carbon price imposed on the province by the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Trudeau made the comments moments after he met with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has already begun the process of scrapping the province’s capand-trade system — in defiance of Ottawa’s insistence that all provinces put a price on greenhouse gas emissions.

The federal government has said it will “backstop” any province that doesn’t have a system in place, and has told provinces they must have submitted details of a carbon pricing plan by Sept. 1. But Ottawa has for months hinted it could return hundreds of millions in revenues it will raise directly to taxpayers, and not to governments that oppose its plan.

“Obviously, it’s better if we can work collaboratively with the provinces,” Trudeau said Thursday.

“But, as we’ve seen, if provinces do not wish to be part of the national plan, the federal government will move forward on bringing in a carbon price backstop and returning directly — in this case to Ontarians — the money collected on the pricing of pollution.”

A spokeswoman for federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Wednesday that the $420 million earmarked for Ontario under the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund was under review. The funding was contingent on the province agreeing to the fund’s framework, which includes imposing a carbon price.