National carbon price to be $10 a tonne in 2018, $50 by 2022, Trudeau says
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pre-empted climate change negotiations with Canada’s premiers, announcing that the federal government will impose a pan-Canadian floor price on carbon pollution.
Trudeau revealed Monday his plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, starting in 2018 with a low carbon price of $10 per tonne that would rise by $10 per tonne each year until it reaches $50 per tonne in 2022.
And he gave the provinces just two options for implementing that price: either impose their own direct price on carbon that meets or exceeds the national floor price, as British Columbia has already done, or set up a cap and trade system, such as Ontario and Quebec are developing.
If any province or territory does not implement one of the two options by 2018, “the government of Canada will implement a price in that jurisdiction,” Trudeau warned, adding that all revenue would be given to the province or territory in which it is generated.