The Saskatchewan government continues to reject a carbon tax, saying it would cost the province $4 billion over the next five years.
Premier Scott Moe said the province won’t sign the national framework on climate change “as long as a carbon tax lies at the heart of that document and it does.”
However, NDP opposition leader Ryan Meili recently pressed Moe on what not signing on to the document might cost.
He said in the legislature that Manitoba spent $40,000 on a legal opinion to find out it would likely lose a court fight and end up with the tax anyway.
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“The people of Saskatchewan deserve to know. Is this government about to embark on a costly crusade, a pointless crusade?” he asked during question period.
Moe replied that the NDP is waving a white flag but the government isn’t giving up.
Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said the province will continue to develop its plan to reduce carbon emissions and evaluate whether going to court is feasible.
The province has long said that a tax won’t result in real reductions but technology such as carbon capture and storage could.
Boundary Dam 3 has sequestered more than two million tonnes of carbon, Moe told delegates to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention.
That’s the equivalent of taking half a million vehicles off the road each and every year, he said.
“Look at the potential of technology in places like Vietnam,” where a coal-fired generator the size of SaskPower’s full capacity is under construction.
“This is the opportunity. This is what Saskatchewan can bring to the conversation of climate change.”
But he also noted that agriculture is part of the solution. Zero-till and genetic improvements in crop production are often cited for reducing the carbon intensity of the sector.
“Let’s not forget about the 17 million acres of grassland with provincial easement protection on it … that is now in itself sequestering 2.5 times the total emissions of the province of Saskatchewan,” Moe said.
Saskatchewan has based its $4 billion cost on an access to information report from Blacklock’s Reporter, an Ottawa news and information source specializing in federal government administration.
It obtained a finance department memo from 2017 that projects the impact of a tax on the province is $260 million in the first year and rising to $1.3 billion per year by 2022 as the tax goes from $10 per tonne to $50 per tonne.
By year, the cost according to the province is $260 million, $520 million, $780 million, $1.04 billion and $1.3 billion, for a total of $3.9 billion.
