TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2019) The Province of Alberta's carbon tax plan meets Federal emissions reduction guidelines for 2020, Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in a statement.
The Liberal Party of Canada's carbon tax mandate, introduced during the early stages of Prime Minister Justice Trudeau's term, has been a point of contention between the federal government and several provinces, including Alberta. By introducing a provincial plan Alberta avoids a federally-imposed tax.
"Alberta's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Regulation (TIER) meets the federal government's stringency benchmark criteria for carbon-pollution pricing systems, for 2020, for the emission sources they cover," Wilkinson said on Friday. "The Regulation will go into effect on January 1, 2020, replacing Alberta's previous approach to pricing pollution from industry. As a result, the federal output-based carbon-pricing system, the large industry portion of the backstop, will not go into effect in Alberta."
The Alberta regulation set a price of $30-per-tonne on emissions from large emitters such as oilsands operators, natural gas producers, and chemical manufacturers.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) welcomed the news and said that they "look forward to collaboration and focus on methane regulations now that TIER has met the test."
The Government of Alberta introduced Bill 19, better known as the TIER regulation on October 29, 2019, and the Bill received royal assent on November 22, 2019.
The federal standard price is $20 per tonne on emissions, which increases by $10 per tonne each year.
The Ontario Government has challenged the carbon tax in federal court questioning its constitutionality. Following a lower court's decision siding with the federal government, the appeal is now awaiting Canada's Supreme Court decision on whether it would take up the case.
