Climate rally crowd says Moe ‘missed boat’ on carbon tax
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is “missing the boat” by opposing the carbon tax, an energy consultant said at a climate change prevention rally in Saskatoon.
“It is entirely possible to construct ... a carbon tax, which actually supports the people of Saskatchewan instead of harming them,” Mark Bigland-pritchard said.
The rally held at Saskatoon City Hall on Saturday afternoon was organized by Climate Justice Saskatoon and the Saskatoon chapter of the social justice organization The Council of Canadians. Dozens of Saskatoon residents stopped at the rally to hear speakers discuss the potential impacts of climate change around the world and how it could be prevented.
Bigland-pritchard, one of the event’s co-organizers and an independent energy consultant who has run as a federal candidate for the Green Party, said one of the biggest struggles with combating climate change is getting the topic on the political agenda.
He praised Saskatoon’s municipal government for taking steps in the right direction to help the environment, but said the provincial and federal governments aren’t doing enough. Bigland-pritchard said Moe and the provincial government had a chance to create a “made-in-saskatchewan” carbon tax but lost the opportunity due to their position.
Formerly the minister of the en- vironment for the Saskatchewan Party government, Moe pledged shortly after he was elected as party leader that there would be no new carbon tax in Saskatchewan despite the federal government’s push for every province to have such a program. Moe also said Saskatchewan already had a plan in place that the federal government needed to respect.
Bigland-pritchard said that despite the Saskatchewan Party’s stance, a carbon tax is the only fair solution, noting that “polluters should pay for their pollution” and there has to be a better long-term plan in place.
“We need to diversify the economy. We need to plan and move into ... clean energy,” he said.