The federal carbon tax is unconstitutional and will impede the ability of provinces to develop their own solutions to deal with carbon emissions, a lawyer for the United Conservative Party told the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Wednesday.
Ryan Martin, lawyer for Alberta’s Official Opposition party, told the court that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act intrudes on how powers are divided between the federal and provincial governments under the 1867 Constitution Act.
“It’s the position of the United Conservative Association that allowing Canada to expand its constitutional powers at the expense of the provinces will upset the balance of federalism in Canada,” Martin told the court.
He added that the measure “will prevent provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario from developing and implementing their own policy solutions to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions that are unique to the individual and local concerns of those provinces.”
The UCP is one of 16 intervenors in the Saskatchewan government’s reference to the province’s highest court. The appeal court judges have been asked to determine the constitutionality of the federal government’s tax, which comes into effect on April 1.
The measure will affect New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan which do not have their own price on carbon.
Alberta’s carbon tax first came into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
Lawyers for the Saskatchewan government made their arguments at the start of the hearing Wednesday morning. Lawyers for the Government of Canada will make their submissions on Thursday.
In addition to the UCP, lawyers for Ontario and New Brunswick, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Power Corporation and Sask Energy and International Emissions Trading Association sided with Saskatchewan’s position against the tax.
Another nine intervenors are on the side of the federal government. They include the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Attorney General of British Columbia.