By Greg Fry

TRU prof: Carbon pricing likely here to stay despite opposition from Ontario

Jun 18, 2018 | 3:36 PM

KAMLOOPS — A TRU instructor says Doug Ford’s election win in Ontario earlier this month presents “a speed bump for climate policy in Canada.”

Ford’s first promise upon winning office was to axe his province’s cap-and-trade program that he says adds $4.3 cents to every litre of gas sold and hurts working families.

“Many companies in Ontario, they’ve already purchased future emission offset permits in the auctions in the cap-and-trade program,” says. Dr. Joel Wood, an assistant professor in TRU’s Department of Economics. “Pretty much California and Quebec are now saying these things are going to be worth nothing for Ontario.”

He says it won’t stop the federal government from implementing a carbon tax — something he expects Ford will fight in court.

“He (Ford) mentioned he’ll partner with Saskatchewan in challenging the federal policy legally, but the Manitoba government has already looked into it and decided it wasn’t challengeable. I’m not a lawyer but Manitoba figured they’d lose.”

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Nevertheless, Wood figures Ford will follow through and cancel the cap-and-trade program and still take action against Ottawa.

“He’ll probably spend millions of dollars of taxpayers money taking the feds to court and ultimately it seems carbon pricing is likely here to stay. The difference is who’s implementing it and who gets to decide who gets the revenue from it.”

Wood says B.C. likely won’t be affected by what`s going on in Ontario because our carbon tax is already in place and the current coalition NDP government recently raised it.

Ironically, Wood says the reality is Canada is really just on “the margins” when it comes to the global stage.

“There are global benefits to Canada reducing emissions but ultimately we’re a small player and long-term we need to get the US and China on board.”