Ottawa stands firm on carbon pricing
Ontario’s new premier has promised to scrap cap-and-trade system
OTTAWA—The federal Liberals are prepared to impose a carbon price on Ontario if Doug Ford makes good on his promise to scrap the province’s capand-trade system.
The potential for a climate change showdown between the federal government and Canada’s most populous province dominated Ottawa’s reaction to the Ontario election results Friday.
Ford was elected on promises to scrap Ontario’s cap-andtrade system, slash the price of gasoline for consumers and fight the federal government’s carbon pricing plan at the Supreme Court.
During question period on Parliament Hill Friday, the Conservative opposition framed Ford’s victory as a repudiation of the federal Liberals’ plan to enforce carbon pricing across the country, beginning in 2019.
“The agenda of high taxes and big government, of carbon taxes on working people, has been rejected by Ontarians. Will the prime minister take that message?” Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre said.
Jonathan Wilkinson, a Vancouver MP and parliamentary secretary to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, accused Conservatives of neglecting established science and failing to have a plan to combat climate change.
Outside the Commons, he told the Star the government wants o work with the incoming Ford administration on carbon pricing. But if Ford scraps the existing system, as promised, Ottawa is prepared to impose one.
“We need to move forward, and the Government of Canada intends to move forward,” Wilkinson said.
In general, under a cap-andtrade system, companies are given a limit or cap that sets in place how much greenhouse gas they can each discharge. If a firm can reduce emissions below its limit, it can sell the excess. Another firm that goes over its cap can buy this excess. Over time, the cap is reduced to encourage an overall reduction in emissions.
Ford won a commanding majority government Thursday night, taking 76 out of 124 ridings across the province. The New Democrats will form the official opposition, with 40 seats, and after a decade-and-ahalf in power, the Liberals were reduced to only seven — not enough for official party status at Queen’s Park. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner won a historic victory for his party, winning Guelph to become the first Green MPP in Ontario.
Ontario’s cap-and-trade system was created in 2017 and linked with similar systems both in Quebec and California.
The federal Liberals have mandated that all provinces put in place carbon pricing — either by taxing emissions or through cap-and-trade — by the end of 2018. Jurisdictions that don’t meet federal standards will have Ottawa’s system imposed on them.
But Ford has vowed to fight the federal government to the Supreme Court, arguing Ottawa does not have jurisdiction to put such a system in place. If he does, Canada’s most populous province will join Saskatchewan in legal opposition to the carbon pricing plan — with Alberta potentially to follow, if Jason Kenney is elected.