Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to his feet in the House of Commons earlier this week to announce a national carbon tax that will force provinces to put a minimum price on carbon or set up a cap and trade system to tax emissions.
Designed to address climate change and ensure all regions of the country are paying for their greenhouse gas emissions, the announcement sparked walkouts from a climate meeting in Montreal, demands for pipeline quid pro quo, as well as a number of endorsements and shows of support.
The federal plan calls for a $10-per-tonne floor price starting in 2018, eventually rising to $50 a tonne in 2022—two-thirds higher than what Alberta’s price will be in 2018. Trudeau said the federal government will implement a price in any province or territory that doesn’t have either a carbon price or a cap-and-trade system in place by 2018.
Immediately after the announcement, which Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called a “betrayal,” the prairie province, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alberta had all but joined the opposing camp.
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