McKenna issues carbon ultimatum

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is throwing down the gauntlet on climate change.

Provinces that want a piece of the $2-billion federal low-carbon economy fund must fall in line, she said Wednesday.

“You need to commit to our climate plan; it includes recognizing there’s a cost to pollution,” McKenna said.

Ontario has been at the centre of the storm since the new Progressive Conservative government dumped a cap and trade system and decided against imposing a price on carbon. The federal government has been reviewing the $420 million that would go to Ontario from the fund, but McKenna wouldn’t say Wednesday if a decision had been made on the matter.

“There’s no backing away from climate change,” she said. “We are absolutely all in when it comes to taking climate action.”

Provinces have until the weekend to provide the federal government with their climate change plans.

OTTAWA • Provinces that don’t get on board with the federal Liberals’ plan to deal with climate change, including putting a price on pollution, will forfeit their share of a $2-billion federal fund, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says.

Federal officials have been reviewing $420 million slated for Ontario from the low-carbon economy fund after that province’s newly elected Tory government scrapped a cap and trade system and rejected imposing a price on carbon.

McKenna said the federal government is committed to providing money from the fund to those provinces that show a commitment to seriously tackling climate change.

Most provinces, she said, are stepping up to the Liberals’ plan.

“You need to commit to our climate plan, it includes recognizing there’s a cost to pollution. That is a key element to it,” McKenna said about qualifying for the lowcarbon fund.

The Liberals find themselves with multiple provinces opposing aspects of the plan, from new clean fuel standards to carbon pricing through a tax or cap and trade. Debate about carbon taxes has become a key campaign issue in New Brunswick’s provincial election and threatens to dominate next year’s federal election as well.

This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped the term “climate change” from the title of a cabinet committee overseeing environmental policy.

McKenna said no one should question the government’s commitment to combating climate change and the pan-Canadian plan it unveiled shortly after taking office in late 2015.

“There’s no backing away from climate change,” McKenna said following an event in Ottawa.

“We are absolutely all in.” Provinces have until the weekend to submit their climate change plans for federal scrutiny and a failing grade will lead to Ottawa’s imposition of a carbon price on that province.

The federal climate plan calls for taxes on greenhouse gas emissions starting at $10 per tonne this year and rising by $10 a year to $50 a tonne in 2022. It leaves it to the provinces to decide how to do that, either through a tax or a cap-and-trade system.

Saskatchewan’s plan, released just before McKenna’s event, didn’t include a carbon tax but allows heavy emitters to buy offset credits or pay into a technology fund.

However, the province’s environment minister made clear that he wouldn’t submit his plan for federal approval before the weekend deadline.

In a statement accompanying release of the plan, Dustin Duncan panned a carbon tax and said measures taken by his government “demonstrate why the federal backstop should not be imposed on Saskatchewan businesses, industries, communities and families.”

McKenna said she wanted to read Saskatchewan’s plan in more detail, but was “certainly pleased to see they recognized a cost to pollution.”