Premier Moe blasts Carbon Tax potential impact on Sask.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe took direct aim at the damaging impact of a Carbon Tax on the provincial economy during a luncheon speech in Swift Current last Friday.
He argued that the federal tax does not take into account Saskatchewan’s extensive efforts to reduce emissions or the province’s ability to sequester carbon, and at the same time it would take aim at Saskatchewan’s key industries of energy, mining, agriculture and manufacturing.
“I would put forward that these sectors, with a federally imposed Carbon Tax, would bear a disproportional burden of that cost. Overnight they would become less competitive,” Moe said at the June 22 Swift Current and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon which focussed on his first 100 days as Premier.
“Even if you were able to somehow administer what we feel is a government-sponsored shell game, where the government grabs the money at one end and attempts to give it back at the other, what’s the point.”
“A Carbon Tax is a seductive tool for many environmentalist. It’s a seductive tool for some economists and in some conservative think tanks.”
Moe pointed at the Evraz steel plant outside of Regina which is the largest steel producer in Western Canada. Evraz will supply the pipe for the Canadian portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline along with 275,000 tonnes of pipe for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project. Evraz makes their steel with an electric arc furnace, while most steel plants around the world, including those in China and throughout the US, make steel with blast furnaces. Blast furnaces emit five times the emissions of electric arc furnaces, while Saskatchewan has one of the most efficient, from a carbon perspective, steel plants in the world.
“If a Carbon Tax was to be imposed on that industry here in our province by the federal government, that plant would become less competitive than their competitors in the US, as well as in China, where they generate five times the emissions contributing to what is a global challenge, not just a Saskatchewan or a Canadian challenge. But a global challenge in climate change.”
He further argued the divisive issue ignores Saskatchewan’s role in sequestering carbon, and changes made to agriculture practices which have strengthened the province’s ability to sequester carbon.
A move to zero till and other agriculture changes allowed Saskatchewan to sequester 12 million tonnes of carbon this past year, a change from where the province was previously emitting 600,000 tonnes of carbon each and every year.
“Those who are eager to impose a carbon tax on our critical industries in this province and disregarding the full spectrum of what Saskatchewan has to offer.”
“You don’t tax one and not recognize some of the other, and there’s no need to tax one and not recognize some of the other.”