Brad Wall vows to reject carbon tax he says will cost Saskatchewan $1 billion a year

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says a Liberal idea to tax carbon might cost the Saskatchewan economy more than $1 billion annually.

Wall told reporters Monday he “will not be signing” any carbon tax agreement using the federal or any other provincial governments once the premiers meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a few days.

“The very last thing we want at this time is yet another new tax,” Wall said.

The premier said you will find indications from Trudeau’s Liberal government it wants to impose a carbon tax at $15 a tonne and that negotiations on that deal could begin as early as now, when premiers talk with Trudeau in Vancouver.

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Wall said a tax of $15 per tonne of carbon would cost Saskatchewan’s economy $500 million annually. When the tax was $40 a tonne, time would jump to $1.3 billion annually, he said.

He also said a $15 per tonne carbon tax would cost families $500 a year.

The very last thing we need at this time is yet another new tax

Ontario’s cap-and-trade carbon system goes into effect in January 2017 and also the Liberals predict this program will raise $1.9 billion in the first full year of operation – money that’ll be reinvested into funding “emissions-reduction initiatives.”

Cap-and-trade will force emitters in covered sectors to purchase carbon credits if they exceed emission caps, while companies that beat targets will be able to sell their additional allowances in a carbon credit market.

A University of Saskatchewan economist disputes Wall’s claim that a carbon tax would inherently hurt the economy.

“I’m not sure where he is getting his numbers from,” Joel Bruneau said.

Any carbon tax regime would probably be implemented by the provinces, and also the provinces consequently – not the federal government – would be the ones collecting the tax dollars, Bruneau said, adding Wall’s government could reinvest those funds as it sees fit, or cut its very own taxes.

Bruneau said academic papers studying British Columbia’s carbon tax system have discovered no significant negative economic impact since the tax was imposed in 2008.

“You simply can’t think it is in terms of job losses, when it comes to competitiveness,” Bruneau said.

Wall’s government has mused in the past in regards to a carbon levy for heavy emitters with the tax dollars going back into a “technology fund” to help companies develop innovative methods to reduce green house gas emissions.

As Saskatchewan heads right into a provincial election, NDP leader Cam Broten supports that idea.

“It’s highly disingenuous for Mr. Wall to be referring to how the sky’s now falling,” Broten told reporters in Regina.

Broten said he does not support a “carbon tax economy wide” and the man really wants to make sure any tax dollars raised in Saskatchewan stay in the province.

He said Wall is just playing politics by selecting a fight with the federal government in front of the election.

Bruneau said given the federal indications and election promises that the carbon tax is originating in order to reduce emissions and battle global warming, it would seem sensible for that province to apply a carbon tax and the money here prior to the authorities mandates one.

Wall said given falling oil prices which are battering the province’s economy, the timing for any carbon tax deal couldn’t be worse. He did, however, leave the door available to a carbon tax sometime in the near future.

“We are not saying never. We are saying not now, not for that foreseeable future. The timing is not right,” he explained.

Wall said in the meantime Canada should focus its efforts and investments on innovation and technology, not taxes.

Wall also said he is prepared to fight any proposal to impose a carbon tax on a couple of Saskatchewan’s largest carbon emitters, SaskPower and SaskEnergy, because that they’re Crown corporations.

cthamilton@postmedia.com