The Liberal government is curtailing its plan to price carbon pollution after hearing concerns from Canadian industry officials about how the tax would impact competitiveness.
As the Globe and Mail first reported Wednesday morning, Environment and Climate Change Canada plans to release new guidelines that lower the percentage of emissions some polluters will have to pay the carbon tax on.
Back in January, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna set the benchmark at 70 per cent of an industry’s average emissions performance, meaning companies would have to pay a tax on 30 per cent of their emissions.
McKenna’s office confirmed to CBC News that they’ve adjusted the proposal to set the benchmark at 80 per cent — and 90 per cent for specific industries — so large polluters would only pay tax on 10 to 20 per cent of their emissions output.
That plan is scheduled to come into effect in early 2019, and will be imposed on provinces that do not have a carbon pricing system of their own. The tax is set for $20 a tonne in 2019 and will rise to $50 in 2022.
The federal government says it’s still talking to industries and will have more details this fall.
In one of his first moves as Ontario premier, Doug Ford announced his province would be getting out of the cap-and-trade system, and vowed to go to court, along with Saskatchewan, to fight Ottawa’s carbon-tax plan.
Manitoba was reluctant to sign on to the federal government’s plan until recently.
New Brunswick has an emissions reduction plan, but it has been criticized as inadequate by the federal government.
Alberta and B.C. already have a carbon tax, while Quebec is part of the cap-and-trade system Ontario plans to leave.
Nova Scotia is developing its own internal cap-and-trade system.
P.E.I. says its approach will be to lower the price of renewable energy to motivate people to do the right thing.