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Ontario PC ministers urge PM Trudeau to chuck pricey carbon tax

By Felecia Bhangu | August 2, 2018 |

The long-proposed Carbon tax that has been a part of the liberal governments plan to eradicate or at least lower carbon emissions as a ploy to slow global warming is now under attack again from the PC party. After the last voting session which saw the PC party in a majority, the ministers are using their collective voice to try to stop or curb the carbon tax.

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Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Environment Minister Rod Phillips

Ontario’s attorney general and environment minister are urging the federal government to not impose a “job-killing” carbon tax in their province, and warning they are already working on two court challenges to fight the potential tax.

Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Environment Minister Rod Phillips were expected to announce details about Ontario’s PC government canceling the cap-and-trade program — the costs of which are still unclear — but instead used the news conference to attack the federal carbon tax that could replace it.-CBC

The pricing system which will take effect on January 1, 2019 has already been tweaked by the Trudeau government in an attempt to stay competitive while taking in the opinion of the opposition party.

The extent to which the competitiveness of industrial sectors or specific facilities within a sector may be impacted by carbon pricing is largely determined by two factors:

  • the carbon emissions intensity associated with the production of the products of the sector or facility (the carbon emissions per unit of net output is representative of the cost exposure of the sector or facility to carbon pricing); and

  • the extent to which facilities in the sector are able to pass on the costs of carbon pricing without significant loss of market share, an indicator of which is its degree of trade-exposure.-Gov.canada

OTTAWA—The Trudeau government is scaling back its carbon tax plan over concerns about competitiveness, a move being hailed by Ontario’s environment minister as a welcome “climb-down” and decried by environmentalists as putting short-term economic interests ahead of the health of the planet.-Toronto Star

Under the new plan, which Environment and Climate Change Canada quietly published online last Friday, Ottawa will deliver higher rebates to heavy emitters as part of a strategy to keep them competitive and to discourage them from relocating to places where regulations are less expensive.-Toronto Star

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The plan is expected to target four major sectors:

  • cement
  • iron and steel manufacturing
  • lime
  • nitrogen fertilizers

These sectors are some of the largest Carbon emitters and  “Ottawa will tax companies $20 for every tonne of greenhouse gas they emit, a levy that will ramp up to $50 per tonne in 2022.-Toronto Star” Since joining the Kyoto protocol in 1992 Canadians have expressly expressed their interest in lowering carbon emissions and becoming a leader in fighting climate change, a moot point the Trudeau government ran on in the last election.

Earlier this year, the federal government introduced special “output-based standards” to offset the cost of the carbon tax for heavy emitters that face tough foreign competition. Companies in these sectors were set to receive emissions credits — or rebates — worth 70 percent of what an average firm in their industry was expected to pay in carbon tax. That means they would avoid paying the tax on this portion of their emissions.

The government now plans to beef up those rebates, a move that will lessen the carbon tax load even further for these heavy emitters.-Toronto Star

Image result for Catherine McKenna

“We’ve been clear since the beginning that we would consult with industry and environmental experts to find the best ways to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency and stay competitive — and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said in an emailed statement. “We can’t afford to let big polluters off the hook.”

She did not provide an explanation as to why four industries – cement, steel-making, lime and nitrogen fertilizer – are considered “high competitive risk” businesses.-The National Post

 

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