Premier Scott Moe (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By CKOM News

Moe: Feds have rejected Saskatchewan’s alternative to carbon tax

Jul 12, 2021 | 10:59 AM

Saskatchewan’s battle against the federal carbon tax may have ended in the courts, but the province continues to rail against it.

In a statement Monday, Premier Scott Moe said the federal government had rejected Saskatchewan’s submission to replace the tax and said it wouldn’t accept any other submissions until 2023.

“Saskatchewan’s submission would have protected families, jobs and industries while exceeding the federal minimum standards, in close alignment with other provincial programs previously accepted,” Moe wrote. “The rejection of Saskatchewan’s submission can only be viewed as an arbitrary and political decision from the federal government.

“While Saskatchewan will be fully evaluating the federal decision and exploring all avenues possible to protect our residents from the federally imposed carbon tax, we hope that the federal government does not take the same arbitrary and political approach to ongoing areas of federal-provincial negotiation, such as the federal child care funding, which Saskatchewan will continue to pursue.”

In March, after the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Saskatchewan’s challenge of the constitutionality of the tax, Moe said his government was developing an alternative plan.

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It was to create provincial greenhouse gas emissions regulations and bring SaskPower and SaskEnergy under that, rather than under the federal legislation.

Moe said at the time that would allow the province to have more control over the regulations and over where the tax money went. The province already had asked the federal government for that change and for it to be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2019.

The plan also was to include a proposal for Saskatchewan to design its own carbon pricing system for fuel, similar to the system in New Brunswick which provides a rebate right at the pump.

Grain drying was to be included under that system. Fuel for that would be exempt if possible and the province would look to refund as much of the carbon tax as possible at the outset.

A greenhouse gas offset program also was to be developed by the provincial government. Moe said at the time it would be an option for regulated industries to meet their emissions targets by buying offsets from farmers, ranchers, and the forestry industry.

Moe said the province would also ask the federal government for its share of the federal low carbon economy funding, which he said would amount to about $126 million.