What Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to impose on Saskatchewan is not fair.
His carbon price plan — which will charge a tax of $10 a tonne by 2018, rising to $50 a tonne by 2022 — does disproportionally hurt a coal- and oil-producing province like Saskatchewan.
And one strongly suspects he imposed it while knowing full well that it does him little political harm in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes where there are more Liberal voters (Although it should be noted that the environment minister from Nova Scotia – along with the Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe – were the ministers who walked out of the national gathering upon hearing Trudeau’s announcement).
One might even accept Premier Brad Wall’s calculations that Trudeau’s carbon tax will cost an average Saskatchewan family $1.250 a year and "will siphon over $2.5 billion from Saskatchewan's economy when fully implemented" by 2022, according to his statement.
"As I have said many times before, we are having the wrong conversation in Canada," Wall said in a prepared written statement minutes after Trudeau's announcement.
Wall's statement went on to insist carbon pricing "holds the lowest potential for reducing emissions, while potentially doing the greatest harm to the Canadian economy."
But let us also accept a couple other realities that may not necessarily be easy to swallow.
The first is that - left to his own devices - Wall would choose to do virtually nothing to address greenhouse gas emissions.
Yes, Wall has made costly carbon capture and storage the centrepiece of the government’s response.
But if we are now being taxed on carbon output, what Trudeau’s carbon tax (and we are well within our right to call it that) will mostly do is demonstrate that our carbon capture and sequestration efforts haven’t really worked.
This takes us to the second uncomfortable reality for many, which is the fact that we are living in a world where we are experiencing the impact of man-made climate change and are conveniently ignoring that reality.
It was rather interesting that Wall concluded his statement by saying he would “investigate all options to mitigate the impact of one of the largest national tax increases in Canadian history.”
Had he put as much effort into providing a made-in-Saskatchewan climate strategy response, he would be in a far better position to respond to a federal taxing scheme none us are going to much like.
Really, it has been this inaction that has paved the way for Trudeau’s carbon-pricing plan.
Wall’s government still finds it difficult to make anything other than begrudging admissions that man-made climate change is real.
That invasive species like zebra mussels have taken up more of the Saskatchewan environment minister’s time than climate change says all too much.
By using language like“stunning disrespect” and “betrayal” to describe Trudeau’s plan, Wall is playing the all-too-common notion in today’s world that politics is a sports event where it’s okay to blindly cheer for the home side.
This is not a ‘Rider game and the problem here isn’t cheating referees or the opponents using dirty tactics.
Climate change is a real issue and we all need to have a say in addressing it.
Admittedly, this doesn’t mean that what Trudeau is imposing is anything close to the right answer. Wall is right to call him on it.
It might very well be exactly as Wall described and that this is the wrong solution that disproportionally impacts Saskatchewan’s coal and oil industry.
Personally, one wonders why this federal government and others choose not to address this issue at the tailpipe of a vehicle (which Trudeau wouldn’t do, because that would hammer voters in Ontario and Quebec).
But if he and Saskatchewan are going to take on Trudeau on this this carbon tax, Wall better have a strategy in his back pocket.
Ranting at Trudeau and the federal government is not good enough.
