Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says a Liberal idea to tax carbon might cost the Saskatchewan economy more than $1 billion a year.
Wall told reporters Monday he “won’t be signing” any carbon tax agreement using the federal or other provincial governments when the premiers talk with Pm Justin Trudeau in a few days.
“The worst thing we want at this time is yet another new tax,” Wall said.
The premier said you will find indications from Trudeau’s Liberal government that it really wants to impose a carbon tax at $15 a tonne and that negotiations on that deal could begin as soon as now, when premiers talk with Trudeau in Vancouver.
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Wall said a tax of $15 per tonne of carbon would cost Saskatchewan’s economy $500 million a year. When the tax was $40 a tonne, time would jump to $1.3 billion annually, he explained.
He also said a $15 per tonne carbon tax would cost families $500 annually.
The very last thing we want right now is another new tax
Ontario’s cap-and-trade carbon system goes into effect in January 2017 and the Liberals predict the program will raise $1.9 billion in the first twelve month of operation – money that’ll be reinvested into funding “emissions-reduction initiatives.”
Cap-and-trade will force emitters in covered sectors to buy carbon credits when they exceed emission caps, while firms that beat targets can sell their additional allowances in a carbon credit market.
A University of Saskatchewan economist disputes Wall’s declare that a carbon tax would inherently hurt the economy.
“I’m unsure where he’s getting his numbers from,” Joel Bruneau said.
Any carbon tax regime would probably be implemented by the provinces, and the provinces in turn – not the federal government – will be the ones collecting the tax dollars, Bruneau said, adding Wall’s government could reinvest those funds as it sees fit, or cut its own taxes.
Bruneau said academic papers studying British Columbia’s carbon tax system have discovered no significant negative economic impact since the tax was imposed in 2008.
“You simply can’t find it in terms of job losses, when it comes to competitiveness,” Bruneau said.
Wall’s government has mused previously about a carbon levy for heavy emitters with the tax dollars going back right into a “technology fund” to help companies develop innovative ways to reduce green house gas emissions.
As Saskatchewan heads right into a provincial election, NDP leader Cam Broten supports that concept.
“It’s highly disingenuous for Mr. Wall to be talking about the way the sky’s now falling,” Broten told reporters in Regina.
Broten said he does not support a “carbon tax economy wide” and the man wants to make certain any tax dollars raised in Saskatchewan remain in the province.
He said Wall is simply playing politics by selecting a fight using the authorities in front of the election.
Bruneau said because of the federal indications and election promises that the carbon tax is coming in order to reduce emissions and battle global warming, it would seem sensible for that province to implement a carbon tax and the cash here before the federal government mandates one.
Wall said given falling oil prices which are battering the province’s economy, the timing for any carbon tax deal couldn’t be worse. He did, however, leave the door open to a carbon tax sometime in the future.
“We’re not saying never. We are saying not now, not for the near future. The timing is not right,” he explained.
Wall said in the meantime Canada should focus its efforts and investments on innovation and technology, not taxes.
Wall also said he is prepared to fight any proposal to impose a carbon tax on two of Saskatchewan’s largest carbon emitters, SaskPower and SaskEnergy, because that they’re Crown corporations.
cthamilton@postmedia.com
