‘More effective than a carbon tax:’ Saskatchewan digs in heels on climate change

MOOSE JAW, Sask. — The Saskatchewan government is doubling down on its climate change strategy and continues to defy Ottawa’s demand it put a price on carbon emissions.

Environment Minister Dustin Duncan says the province is expanding emission limits based on production for facilities such as potash mines and pulp mills.

Those facilities generate 11 per cent of the province’s emissions.

He says the emission limits have already been announced for electricity generation and methane from oil and gas.

Saskatchewan is asking the Court of Appeal to rule on whether Ottawa’s plan to impose a carbon tax on any province that doesn’t have one is unconstitutional.

The province has argued its climate change plan is enough to reduce emissions and a carbon tax would hurt the Saskatchewan economy.

“Our approach … is a more effective plan than a carbon tax, and these commitments demonstrate why the federal backstop should not be imposed on Saskatchewan businesses, industries, communities and families,” Duncan said in a release Wednesday.

“We plan to advise the federal government of our progress on reducing emissions and building a more resilient province; however, we are not submitting our plan for assessment, nor are we changing course on our strong and effective approach on climate change.”

The federal climate plan calls for taxes of greenhouse gas emissions starting at $10 per tonne this year and rising $10 a year to $50 a tonne in 2022. It leaves it to the provinces to decide how to do that either through a tax or a cap-and-trade system.