Clark applauds Alberta carbon tax plan

Ontario’s long-term strategy to fight climate change will be released Tuesday, on the heels of a federal-provincial meeting and Alberta’s newly unveiled plan.

The advent of new leadership in Ottawa and Alberta will allow Canada to shed its global reputation as an environmental pariah, premiers asserted Monday as they arrived for their first formal meeting with a prime minister in almost seven years. Instead, it seemed the climate panel’s report would follow in close step with the royalty review expected in a few weeks. He says companies such as Suncor, CNRL, Shell Canada and Cenovus are glad they can still operate in the Alberta, noting during the federal election campaign the possibility of a federal NDP government shutting down the oilsands seemed a real possibility.

The Wildrose is portraying the NDP plan as a $3-billion tax grab, with individual households paying at least $600 more a year in higher direct home heating and gasoline costs. Tax and spend is the new tax and spend.

“It enables Alberta to be a leader, not only in climate policy, but also in technology, innovation, collaborative solutions and energy development”.

“Canada can not solve its climate issue without Alberta doing something ambitious”, said Anthony Swift, director of the Canada Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

But the changes threaten to further undercut long-term expansion plans already shaken by the collapse in oil prices.

In sum, some government officials said some very, very nice words about climate change today.

Canada emissions fell and are now creeping back. Its production of oil sands, one of the the fossil fuels with the biggest carbon footprint, is largely to blame.

What’s important in Sunday’s announcement is that not only is it a broadly based initiative, by mandating an emissions cap on oilsands emissions it provides a measure of certainty for those producers.

“It’s not enough just to have a target, we need to have a plan to achieve that target”, he said, surrounded by the provincial leaders.

Ferguson is not concerned the 100 megatonne cap on emissions could “sterilize” the oilsands resource.

Backed by prominent representatives from industry and the environmental movement, Premier Rachel Notley says the province is trying to do the right thing for the future. By that definition, every tax in existence is revenue neutral. It will also put revenues into an adjustment fund to help families, small business, First Nations, and people in the coal industry adapt.

“I would call it a tax cut on everything, ” he said.

“It might be good spending”.

How does Alberta’s strategy stack up with the other Canadian provinces?

Under the carbon pricing plan, oil sands will generally be taxed $30 per ton, with some potential wiggle room depending on operator performance.

The plan includes a move toward renewable energy sources and natural gas-fired electricity in order to phase out coal.

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.

“Alberta has said it will use an auction process to bring new renewable energy on-line and such competitive processes have been used successfully in many Canadian jurisdictions”, said Hornung. Personally, I’m a glass half full kind of guy.

For his part, Trudeau offered no new details as he opened the public portion of the gathering.

“If we don’t see evidence of meaningful policy your ambition to be acting on climate is not credible”, their letter to Clark stated.