Supreme Court carbon tax decision set for Thursday

A Supreme Court of Canada decision set for next week could be the end of the question of the carbon tax in Saskatchewan.

The Supreme Court’s schedule has a decision set to come down on Thursday for the Government of Saskatchewan’s challenge of the carbon tax.

The province made its arguments in front of the country’s highest court last September. They were supposed to happen in March of last year but were postponed due to the pandemic.

The province lost its case against the tax in a 3-2 decision from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in 2019.

The majority decision in that case concluded the federal government does have the constitutional power to establish a price for greenhouse gas emissions — something that the province disputed in its argument.

The federal government’s lawyers argued climate change is a big and wide enough problem to justify the tax.

At the time, Premier Scott Moe said he was disappointed in the decision but called it just “Game 1.”

“The end of this playoffs will ultimately be decided in Game 7, which will be the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Moe.