One week before the country’s first ministers are set to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Brad Wall says he has already told the federal government that Saskatchewan will not sign a pan-Canadian climate plan — and that the province is prepared to take the battle to court.
“We’ve tried to be fair and we’ll continue to be fair with the federal government,” Wall said Thursday during a news conference in Saskatoon, acknowledging the Liberals for approving a pair of pipelines earlier this week.
At the same time, he said the province remains firm in its opposition to a plan that would impose a carbon tax on Saskatchewan.
“Oil and gas and agriculture and mining — these are the sectors that a carbon tax will hit the hardest,” Wall said. “They are under great stress.”
Wall said there was no consideration of imposing any kind of tax that would have hurt the auto sector in 2009 when it was facing historic struggles, “when there were literally thousands of jobs being lost … Our points is, why would you do that now?”
On Oct. 3, Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canada will implement a “floor price” of $10 per tonne of carbon emitted by 2017, rising $10 each year to $50 per tonne by 2022. The federal government said it will impose pricing on provinces that don’t develop their own system, but has released few details of how a mandatory carbon pricing system will operate.
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