A carbon tax or cap-and-trade: Feds suggest every province must choose
NEW YORK — Every province could soon have either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system, Catherine McKenna signalled Wednesday as the environment minister prepares a long-awaited plan that promises to heat up the political climate this fall.
The Liberal government will announce this fall a national policy for carbon pricing — and McKenna indicated that she intends to apply a specific definition for what meets that standard.
“There are two ways you can price carbon,” said McKenna, who was in New York for several environmental events at the United Nations. “There’s a cap-and-trade and there is a carbon tax. Eighty per cent of Canadians live in jurisdictions (with one or the other).”
B.C. and Alberta meet her definition with their carbon taxes, as do Ontario and Quebec with their cap-and-trade plans. What doesn’t pass that test? Industrial regulations like the carbon-capture system in Saskatchewan — which is emerging as the federal government’s most vocal adversary on the file.