Carbon tax endorsed as most efficient way to cut emissions

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest business group has endorsed a carbon tax as the most efficient way for the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a report released Thursday, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says there is general consensus in Canada that something needs to be done about climate change, and the debate should not be about if, but how that happens.

Aaron Henry, the chamber’s director of natural resources and environmental policy, said the businesses that make up its membership agree a carbon price is the most efficient way to do it.

“Our members are very much in favour of it,” he said. “They’re happy to do this. We applaud the Canadian government’s direction on this.”

Henry said what chamber members don’t want is more years of political uncertainty that leave businesses unsure what the policies will be next year for getting to those lower-carbon realities.

Nor, he said, do they want layers of environmental regulation on top of carbon pricing that add inefficient requirements to cut emissions that are less flexible than carbon prices.

The federal government’s climate change action plan includes a national price on carbon, but it also develops clean fuel standards, new energy-efficiency building codes, and a phase out on the use of coal to generate electricity.

The regulations for the phase out of coal were finalized this week and have such strict emissions standards for coal plants only one of Canada’s 15 remaining coal-fired generating stations can operate beyond a 2029 deadline.

The Boundary Dam coal plant in Saskatchewan uses carbon capture and storage technology that traps carbon emissions in the ground rather than releasing them into the atmosphere.

The remaining 14 power plants in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will have to convert to other fuel sources, introduce carbon capture technology or close before the end of 2029.

The chamber of commerce report said environmental regulations that force specific actions can force companies to spend to meet regulations, instead of allowing businesses to figure out the cheapest and easiest ways to cut emissions — and therefore lower their carbon tax costs.

In other words, the chamber says the flexibility offered up by the carbon price makes it the most efficient way to cut emissions.