Feds may step in with national carbon policy
Ideally, we should expect provincial governments to use their power responsibly.
The latest report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released this week. And the planet’s leading climate experts have confirmed the worst: We’re seeing more severe effects than anticipated from a relatively small amount of global warming so far, while falling far short of the policy progress we need to make in just a few years if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change down the road.
Unfortunately, despite some recognition of the moral obligation to maintain a livable planet, Canada’s federal government hasn’t yet provided any indication that it’s willing to do anything more than fall short of already insufficient emission-reduction targets. But given the alarm bells ringing out internationally, it’s also highly questionable that Justin Trudeau’s government can justify allowing Canada to do less than currently planned — no matter how much bluster might be thrown up by carbon cranks like Scott Moe and Doug Ford.
The more pressure there is on the federal government to avoid international pariah status, the more likely it is that the Liberals’ current carbon pricing “backstop” will need to be scrapped in favour of a stronger national system. And provincial obstinacy is only increasing the likelihood that Canada as a whole will end up having climate policy set and implemented at the federal level — both as a response to legal challenges and as a matter of political practicality.
On the legal point, the federal government likely has authority to apply a general carbon price across Canada. But the only challenge to that position lies in the assumption that provincial governments could render federal intervention unnecessary by dealing effectively with the issue themselves.
Saskatchewan’s sad excuse for a climate plan is the most obvious example of a province falling woefully short of that standard. But there might have been some argument available that a single province stumbling in the wrong direction wouldn’t preclude the achievement of national goals.
With Ontario now on the side of climate denial, there’s no question that the current set of provincial defectors is large enough to undermine any attempt to meet national emissions targets. And every province that adds its name to the list of objectors (and trashes its own climate-change measures in the process) can only make it more likely that courts will recognize a need for federal action in response to a provincial-level vacuum.
Moreover, any lack of provincial carbon pricing may prove important in political as well as legal terms. In time, enough provincial recalcitrance might lead to a push for a federal plan which serves as a national governing system rather than a mere backstop.
To be clear, a system applied at the federal level wouldn’t necessarily override the wishes of provinces that have their own pricing plans. Instead, it could incorporate any valid provincial interests through federal laws and regulations. And the provincial governments that retain a strong interest in fighting climate change may well be willing to co-operate if it’s necessary in order to have any effective national system at all — particularly given the political advantages of diverting questions to the federal level.
Ideally, we should expect provincial governments to use their power responsibly to act against climate change, both through carbon pricing and effective regulation.
But as conservative leaders refuse to do so, it only becomes more likely that the federal government will see the need to increase its own level of responsibility to avoid impending climate disaster. And the end result could be a national system that’s both more consistent and more likely to survive any challenge in court.
Greg Fingas is a Regina lawyer, blogger and freelance political commentator who has written about provincial and national issues from a progressive NDP perspective since 2005.