Canada’s Alberta to introduce economy-wide carbon tax in 2017

The Canadian province of Alberta, home to the country’s oil sands, said Sunday it will put in place an economy-wide tax on carbon emissions in 2017, placating criticism it’s not doing enough to combat climate change.

The Canadian province of Alberta, holder of the world’s third-largest oil reserves, has proposed a new climate change plan that will give efficient oil-producing companies room to grow while cutting carbon emissions, experts and stakeholders said on Monday.

She said the Alberta model is a better way to deliver incentives for greener technology, and to assist in the orderly phase out of coal-fired electricity while keeping electricity plentiful, reliable, and affordable. Renewable energy sources will comprise up to 30 percent of Alberta’s electricity production by 2030.

In addition, the plan would set a $20 per ton price on carbon at the beginning of 2017 and increase it to $30 per ton the following year.

For many decades, a conservative government ran Alberta, which stronglysupported the oil and gas industry.

“If this is a truly revenue neutral tax, every dollar raised through new carbon taxes should be made available to industry in order to reinvest into new technology to achieve emission reductions”.

“After the Paris conference, we will again meet with the provinces and work together toward a pan-Canadian framework where we can collaboratively advance concrete actions to tackle climate change”, said McKenna.

“This plan recognizes a need for a balance between the environment and the economy”, Murray Edwards, chairman of the oil company Canadian Natural Resources, told reporters Sunday.

However, the Opposition says the NDP plan is a bad idea and that it will cost Alberta too much.

Energy leaders had previously warned any onerous new costs would be disastrous for an industry under severe financial pressure.

“Certainly, it’s sweeping”, says Thomas McInerney, co-head of climate change and emissions trading at Bennett Jones LLP in Calgary, of the new regulations.

“We are really lifting the curtain on Canada’s success to show the world, and we can only do that if we have a strong voice on the global stage, so that is a big change for us”.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading global non-profit organization based in the USA, and the Pembina Institute, Canada’s leading clean energy think tank, welcomed today’s release by the Province of Alberta of an ambitious target for methane reductions from the oil and gas industry.

Why does Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, for example, need federal taxpayers’ money from Trudeau to implement a cap-and-trade market her own officials estimate will increase her government’s revenues by up to $2 billion annually, once fully operational?

That’s the message Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country’s premiers want to spread following the First Minister’s meeting Monday.

Trudeau will not be going to Paris with a new target, but has committed to coming up with a goal with the provinces within 90 days of returning from the talks. “It’s time that Alberta is seen as a climate, energy and innovation leader”.

In an interview she said her government has received an important reassurance from the Liberals, who announced a Liberal government would phase out all oil and gas industry subsidies before the October election.

“Premier Rachel Notley stepped up and unveiled Alberta’s plan to address climate change”.

“Wind energy is one of the most cost-competitive ways to generate new electricity in Alberta and Alberta is wise to draw on its tremendous wind energy resources to help replace coal-fired electricity in the province”, he said.