By Tyler Marr

Moe talks carbon tax and tariffs in Chamber speech

Jun 18, 2018 | 2:00 PM

Saskatchewan’s premier continues to tout the province’s crusade against the federal government’s carbon tax while trumpeting Saskatchewan’s own climate change plan as a more effective way to curb emissions.

Speaking at a breakfast Monday hosted by the Prince Albert & District Chamber of Commerce, Scott Moe said a federal price on carbon would disproportionately affect key Saskatchewan industries like agriculture, mining, and manufacturing. The premier said he is confident in a favourable outcome from Saskatchewan’s legal challenge against the implementation of Ottawa’s carbon pricing scheme.

“We don’t feel it will reduce emission in any way, thus being a flawed policy. It has not reduced emissions in other areas of the world,” Moe told media after his speech at the Ches Leach Lounge. “We have a better plan … where we work with our industries to ensure they are doing far better than the industry average around the world.”

The Prairie Resilience plan, Moe believes, better recognizes the reality of the carbon-centric economy and will result in more meaningful outcomes over the long term while protecting competitiveness. A price on carbon, according to Moe, would force businesses to bear unnecessary costs, limp capital investment, drive away jobs and exile them south of the 49th parallel where tax cuts and deregulation abound under President Donald Trump.

In Alberta, however, where a carbon pricing plan brought in under NDP Premier Rachel Notley has been in place for a number of years, job performance has outpaced Saskatchewan. Moe said it was important to note much of Alberta’s carbon tax policy has yet to be implemented.

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“What you see in Alberta is an increase to fuel, so an increase to cost to people living there,” Moe said. “We are not going to have this flawed policy on our industry.”

Moe said Saskatchewan’s plan rewards innovations, new technologies, and accounts for the natural offset system in the province. He said the Prairie Resilience climate change targets will begin to come out on an industry-specific basis over the coming months. Moe also ribbed the federal government’s branding of the tax as revenue-neutral, calling it a “tremendous oxymoron” that will only result in a shell game of rebates.

In April, Saskatchewan turned to the provincial Court of Appeal to determine if Ottawa has the right to the impose a carbon tax constitutionally on the province. The provincial government argued the proposed bill — the Greenhouse Pollution Pricing Act — can be challenged as it doesn’t uniformly roll out the pricing plan and Ottawa is selectively implementing it based on whether or not a provincial government is pricing carbon to federal standards.

“This is not how our Canadian constitution works,” Moe said. “Provinces have not, are not, and never will be subsidiaries of the federal government.”

Federal carbon pricing kicks in Jan 1, 2019, with a “floor price” of $10 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, rising to $50 per tonne by 2022. Ottawa is expected to review details of each plan in September. Saskatchewan, the lone provincial holdout on a price, is seeking a decision before the end of the year. With the election of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in Ontario earlier this month, Moe said he believes he now has an ally in the fight. Ford vowed to steamroll any attempt by Ottawa to impose a carbon price on his province, pledging to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary and rip up the former Liberal government’s cap-and-trade system.

Elsewhere in his speech, Moe touched on his recent trip to Washington where he met with a long list of top-level policymakers and members of Trump’s administration. He railed against steel and aluminium tariffs, saying they are “self-defeating for both of our countries.” He said Saskatchewan sends over 55 per cent of its export to the U.S. and as “traders by necessity,” the provincial economic pillars will face challenges.

“Per capita, we are one of the largest exporters in the world,” Moe said of the province and reaffirmed his commitment to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the international trade spat with the Americans.

Moe also encouraged the prime minister to engage with all hands on deck as NAFTA renegotiations move forward.

“I think it would do us all a good stead just to take a step back and remember 25 years ago, at the inception of the free trade agreement, those were very challenging and sensitive discussions as well,” he said.

Moe later fielded questions from the crowd over PST on construction projects and equalization payments. The premier said the PST was one step in a necessary process to eventually bring the budget back to balance and could later be reexamined. Moe also said when the equalization formula comes up for scrutiny in 2019 the province will be in Ottawa pitching their thoughts on how it should work. He highlighted, however, that the final decision rests with the feds.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr