Carbon-tax court challenge heating up
OTTAWA — The battle royal over carbon pricing in Canada is getting even hotter, with provinces, environment groups, a First Nation and health experts all asking for permission to participate in a Saskatchewan court challenge.
The Saskatchewan government has asked its provincial appeal court to assess a federal law imposing carbon pricing on provinces that don’t have their own schemes. Saskatchewan argues that law violates the Constitution.
The case is to be heard in February, but a hearing to grant intervener status to third parties is next month and the list of groups seeking to participate is growing.
This week, British Columbia announced its intention to seek intervener status to back Ottawa’s position, and Thursday New Brunswick said it would ask to join the case on Saskatchewan’s behalf.
On Friday, Ecojustice, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Public Health Association and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Northern Alberta all said they were applying to intervene to argue against Saskatchewan’s position.
“Future generations will view [Premier Scott] Moe’s actions as a catastrophe,” said Athabasca Chief Allan Adam. “If Premier Moe is successful in his court actions, it all but guarantees that Canada will never address the problem of catastrophic climate change.”
Saskatchewan argues the law is unconstitutional because it applies a federal carbon tax unevenly on provinces based on whether federal authorities think a province’s climate-change plan is good enough.
Ottawa, however, argues that carbon pricing and reducing emissions falls within federal jurisdiction because pollution doesn’t respect provincial borders and, if one province fails to do its part, it will affect all the others.
Ecojustice lawyer Joshua Ginsberg said climate change is a national emergency posing serious risks to human health and the environment across the country, which means Ottawa absolutely has jurisdiction to impose carbon prices. Ecojustice and the David Suzuki Foundation also plan to seek intervener status next month in a similar challenge being brought by the Ontario government. No hearing date has yet been set for the Ontario case.
After reviewing the climate plans of every province and territory, the federal government concluded this fall that four provinces did not meet the federal standard. Starting in April, Ottawa will charge a $20-pertonne price on carbon emissions.