Ford joins Moe’s fight against carbon tax
Horgan dissents, but Ontario alliance with Saskatchewan signals change as premiers gather
ST. ANDREWS, N.B. — Opposition to Ottawa’s carbon pricing regime overshadowed talks concerning trade issues during the first day of meetings between Canada’s premiers in New Brunswick.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford joined forces with his Saskatchewan counterpart Thursday, saying his province will intervene in the western province’s court case against Ottawa’s carbonpricing policy.
Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe both voiced their opposition to the contentious federal plan, before the start of two days of formal talks at the Council of the Federation meeting in St. Andrews.
“I’m here to gather support among my provincial counterparts against the federal carbon tax,” Ford said in a statement to reporters outside the historic Algonquin Resort.
“Ontario will support Saskatchewan in intervening in the reference case they have launched with the [Saskatchewan] Court of Appeal. This is an important step in the fight against the federal carbon tax.”
Ford, who made the announcement after a meeting with Moe late Wednesday, said both provinces are on “the exact same page.”
He said Ontario will use every tool at its disposal to challenge a tax he says is bad for families and businesses.
Ford’s recently elected government is scrapping Ontario’s cap-and-trade program, which would make the province subject to a federally imposed carbon price, starting at $20 per tonne and increasing to a level of $50 a tonne by 2022.
Moe, whose government continues to hold out on creating a carbon-pricing scheme, said a one-size-fits-all carbon tax fails to recognize the diverse nature of the Canadian economy.
“This made-in-Ottawa carbon tax plan finds our nation now in this position,” Moe said. “We have two provinces in compliance, we have two provinces in court and we have the rest of the country not meeting the federal carbon tax backstop. Today, we’re grateful that the people of Ontario … will join us every step of the way.”
Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said Ford’s government shouldn’t be using tax dollars on a costly court challenge.
“It’s disappointing Ontario is spending $30 million of taxpayer money on fighting climate leadership,” McKenna said Thursday. “Our government has a plan to protect the environment and grow the economy and it’s working.”
New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant was asked whether Ford and Moe’s declaration would prove a distraction to talks about freer international and internal trade.
“It’s never going to be a distraction to discuss this very important and also very complex subject,” said Gallant.
He reiterated his province would remain committed to its carbon plan, while at the same time monitoring what other provinces ultimately do.
B.C. Premier Horgan said carbon pricing has proven beneficial to his province and he wanted to use the meeting to educate his counterparts on its effect on B.C.’s economy.
He said there has been “robust growth.”
“I would say that the sky didn’t fall.” said Horgan. “There was a lot of debate around the implementation of a carbon tax in B.C. and there was a lot of concern that it would have a negative impact on economic growth. That’s not happened.”
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said his province isn’t about to back out of its cap-andtrade initiative with California, which Ontario had formerly been a part of.
“We are in Quebec a living example of the fact that you can have co-existing carbon pricing and strong economic development,” he said. “We have record levels of growth, record levels of employment with carbon pricing, so those who say that the two are incompatible — we are the living proof of the opposite.”
The provincial leaders were expected to discuss a range of other topics, including the U.S. trade dispute, health care, the pullout of Greyhound from bus routes in Western Canada, and the skirmish between Alberta and B.C. over the Trans Mountain pipeline project.
Gallant emerged after the meetings wrapped up Thursday to say that talks had centered on trade issues and that the premiers had agreed to what they are dubbing the “Fox News approach” of reaching out to Americans.
That would involve appearing on news outlets that don’t share sympathetic views to freer trade, with a view to promoting the importance of the U.S.-Canada trading relationship he said.
Ford, Couillard and Manitoba’s Brian Pallister called for more federal help to deal with asylum seekers who cross their borders.