Supreme Court case to cost province about $500,000

The Saskatchewan government is set to shell out about half a million dollars for its case against the carbon tax, set to be heard in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Speaking on Thursday, Justice Minister and Attorney General Don Morgan said the province retained the MLT Aikins law firm for the Supreme Court challenge. Morgan said he believed the lawyers approached the province after it lost in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals and suggested changes to its argument.

The outside law firm will cost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to Morgan.

“It’s a significant amount of money, make no mistake, but we think the importance of having a strong precedent and the best representation we can have for our province is absolutely critical,” said Morgan.

The first case against the carbon tax and the arguments Saskatchewan has filed as interveners in other provinces’ cases are being done by the government’s in-house counsel. As a result, Morgan said the only costs incurred there are from travel and court filings — and they amount to a couple thousand dollars.

So why hire outside lawyers?

“We have really good lawyers in the constitutional law branch, but we wanted to do everything we could to make sure that we were successful before the Supreme Court. We think the precedent that we’re setting here is very important, not just to Saskatchewan (but) to all of Canada,” explained Morgan.

Saskatchewan’s case challenging the constitutionality of the carbon tax is expected to be heard in front of the Supreme Court of Canada in March.