Ditching federal Liberals is Moe's only plan
Premier Scott Moe has dispensed with the usual provincial pretence of working with whichever party is running the federal government in Ottawa. Talking to reporters last week, the Saskatchewan premier said the only solution to the nasty and dysfunctional stalemate over carbon pricing is a change of federal regime.
There was a time when such a statement might have raised eyebrows. With Moe, it has seemed an inevitability.
Since he warned people “just watch me” six years ago after winning the Saskatchewan Party leadership, we have watched him become more rock-ribbed opposed to both the policy and to Liberals each and every day.
“Whether it's the federal government imposing this carbon tax on Saskatchewan families or the provincial government, neither is our goal,” Moe told reporters shortly before the Easter break. “The goal is to have them removed ... It needs to be removed. Changing who charges it doesn't remove things.”
Moe's statement came about the same time he was taking a battering in the media and after his appearance at the federal standing committee on government operations and estimates (OGGO) where he was peppered with questions on what policy alternatives he was proposing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
There aren't any that are affordable, Moe told the committee.
Instead, Ottawa should remove the tax and recognize carbon credits available through international carbon mitigation outcomes outlined in things like the Paris Accord, Moe told reporters.
“Our stance is to remove the consumer carbon tax on everything for everyone,” Moe said, arguing that the province offers the most sustainable potash, oil and agricultural products on the planet for which it gets no recognition. Saskatchewan could and should simply get carbon tax credit for the 1,000 air drills its manufacturers sell to India, which already demonstrates its environmental innovation.
It was another example of how Moe and the federal Liberals have gone beyond talking different languages to living in different universes.
Asked about Moe's argument that both industries aren't getting credit for greener initiatives, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said India “imports equipment from here so they can meet climate targets” under the rules of the Paris Accord.
“It's not like what Premier Moe said, which is somehow it's simple because you can somehow just take credit for something happening elsewhere,” Wilkinson said. “Everybody has targets ...
“Germany doesn't get credit for the wind turbines they sell us. But they get the jobs.”
Unlike the Sask. Party government, most businesses understand this already and are adjusting, Wilkinson explained. “At least from the larger businesses in Saskatchewan, I don't think you would hear that from them,” he said. “Most of them actually live in a universe where, increasingly, they have to account for the carbon embedded in their products like (at) Jansen's BHP (potash mine).”
Jansen came to the federal government to find ways to generate clean electricity. “They can't use the power off the Saskpower grid” because they do have to account for the coal-generated electricity in their carbon tax costs, Wilkinson said, adding he wants Jansen to go ahead as much as the province does.
Things have reached the point where “there is just zero factual basis. None. Zero” regarding what Moe and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre say about the effectiveness of carbon pricing, the federal Liberal minister said.
It's gone beyond a simple policy disagreement, he added. “The problem is we have a disagreement on carbon pricing and that will be something that will be sorted in the coming months and into the next election,” Wilkinson said. “But I bemoan the fact that in Saskatchewan, alone, they're not prepared to have a conversation about anything else — even where it's in their interest to do so.
“It's just strange. I find it quite easy to have conversations with Danielle Smith. I can't tell you the last time I talked to Scott.”
That's unlikely to change unless one or the other loses power.