Sask. to study economics of climate change policies

Saskatchewan is paying $86,250 to the University of Regina to look at what impacts different climate change policies could have on the economy.

The Institute of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities will look at different segments of the economy, like households, government and businesses.

“The idea is you’re running different model scenarios with different policy components to see what kind of an overall impact they would have on different segments of the population,” said Hal Sanders, assistant deputy minister of climate change policy for the Ministry of Environment. “It’s a very good tool to be able to assess policy options within the context of Saskatchewan specifically.”

Saskatchewan is unique to other provinces, so any changes to climate change policy would have distinct impacts here.

We are a high-emitting province when it comes to greenhouse gases, despite a relatively low population. Sanderson pointed out that population is also spread out across the province, in rural communities and small cities.

“All of those kinds of things are impacting how different policies might impact the fabric of Saskatchewan,” he said.

Results are expected in the new year. Funding was approved through an order in council passed by the provincial cabinet last month.

“The end goal is to look at the lowest-cost options that achieve what we would like to see in both emissions reduction, as well as a reduced impact on the economy,” said Sanderson.

What impact this research will have on any climate change strategy going forward remains unclear.

The order in council said the work by the U of R would be to “assist in the design of effective greenhouse gas reduction policy options for the formulation of a provincial greenhouse gas reduction framework.”

Sanderson said you cannot have a strategy without understanding its effects. This work is expected to help figure out some of those.

“This is about building models that will allow us both to determine an impact a policy adoption might have, as well as ways in which we might monitor policies that are put in place after the fact,” he said.

All the provinces are currently working together on a number of climate change files as a result of meetings that took place earlier this year.

“The province is actively engaged on four working groups, federally and provincially, to try and express its views in those documents as we move forward into the fall,” said Sanders.

Despite Premier Brad Wall’s consistent protests — and the work of the provinces — there is still a very real possibility the federal government will unilaterally impose a carbon tax on the provinces.

Sanders said it was premature to comment on what the province was doing to look at the impact that would have on the economy.

“We model all kinds of different scenarios, but in the end, they’re about taking a dollar out of the economy and dedicating it to a carbon component aspect of our daily lives,” he said.