Effort ongoing to work out carbon tax deal with Sask.: MP
Goodale says it’s difficult to have dialogue with province because of leadership race
Liberal Regina-Wascana MP Ralph Goodale says “it is a bit difficult” to have a dialogue with the province about a carbon levy because of the ongoing race to replace Premier Brad Wall. Ottawa has said it will impose a carbon tax on Saskatchewan in 2018 if it does not introduce its own plan, as the federal government wants a “floor price” of $10 a tonne on carbon pollution in place next year.
“We’re not at any kind of deadline at this point and a dialogue and a very sincere effort continues,” said Goodale. “It is a bit difficult at this point to have a dialogue at the political level because everybody is running to be leader.”
Wall is stepping down at the end of January, prompting a leadership race to choose Saskatchewan’s next premier.
Earlier this month, Wall and Saskatchewan Energy Minister Dustin Duncan accused the federal government of playing a game of chicken with the plan to impose a carbon tax, because no legislation allowing the feds to do so had been introduced.
“That either means the federal backstop is delayed beyond Jan. 1 or they have determined there is another way to implement a federal backstop without legislation. At this point, we’re not clear on that,” said Duncan earlier this month.
Goodale said he has always assumed a law would be needed to impose the federal backstop, but he would like to see the province negotiate its own carbon levy plan.
“It’s not a game of chicken. We have said that a backstop will be put in place, but that is not our preferred approach,” said Goodale, adding the federal government would be “watching very closely” to see who takes over for Wall.
Goodale commented on the issue during an interview in which he was joined by Federal Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr.
Carr responded to criticism he has faced — particularly in the West — for not doing enough to support the natural resource industry and pipeline projects.
Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain line to the Vancouver area and Enbridge’s expanded Line 3 pipeline to the U.S. Midwest were cited by Carr as projects approved under the Liberal government.
“We are fully supportive of these pipelines because of economic development possibilities and because of the importance of expanding our export markets,” he said, noting the majority of Canadian oil and gas is sold in the United States.
Earlier this month, Saskatchewan announced it would seek to intervene in the TransMountain proceedings currently before the National Energy Board (NEB), in order to speed up the project’s construction. Carr has been criticized for allowing the project to be held up by interveners like Burnaby, which is refusing to grant KinderMorgan permits to continue construction on the project.
“We want this pipeline to be built. We believe it’s in Canada’s interest and we’ll make the arguments right across the country,” he said, adding the NEB is an armslength, quasi-judicial organization with which he can’t intervene.