From a press release
HALIFAX: The N.S. Liberal Party is working to remove the carbon tax backstop and bring in an Atlantic cap and trade model, the party said in a release on Sept. 19.
It said that a bill tabled by Environment and Climate Change critic Iain Rankin would emulate successful programs in other provinces like Quebec and British Columbia and satisfy the requirements of the federal government’s climate action plan.
All of this would be done while protecting the pocketbooks of Nova Scotians.
“Our previous Liberal government negotiated a cap and trade deal that did more for the environment and cost Nova Scotians less,” said Rankin. “Unfortunately, the Houston Conservatives are more focused on politics than good policy.
Today’s bill is one more plea to this government to do the right thing and bring back a cap and trade model that works for Nova Scotians.”
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All Atlantic provinces have spoken against a carbon tax.
Creating an Atlantic-wide cap and trade model would eliminate the carbon tax, while spurring clean economic growth in the region.
“Our caucus has been unequivocally clear that the federal carbon tax is not the best model for Nova Scotians,” said Opposition Leader Zach Churchill.
“If Premier Houston is serious about getting rid of the carbon tax in Nova Scotia, he will pass this bill.”
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Quick Facts
Nova Scotia was one of four Canadian provinces/territories that complied with the federal benchmark for the 2018-2022 period, meeting the minimum national stringency criteria, before the PC Party removed the legislation passed in 2017.
The federal carbon pollution pricing system (the ‘backstop’) is applied in provinces and territories that request it or that do not implement a system that meets the benchmark.
The Government of Canada set a minimum national price on carbon pollution for explicit-based systems that increase by $15 per tonne of GHG emissions per year, however cap and trade systems set maximum emissions levels rather than minimum carbon prices.
The legislation the Nova Scotia Liberal government passed in 2017, and the negotiated caps, complied with the 2018-2022 federal benchmark when it was $50 per tonne.
Caps would need to be renegotiated and have declining annual GHG emissions caps from 2023 to at least 2030.
