Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is calling on the prime minister to release an un-redacted version of a secret memo prepared for the finance minister that states carbon pricing would “cascade throughout the economy and prices would increase most for goods that make intensive use of carbon-based energy."
Wall told CTV’s Power Play Friday that the heavily redacted memo marked “SECRET” and obtained through an Access to Information request by the website Blacklock’s Reporter is the first example he’s seen showing “the government might have introspectively looked at the implications of (carbon pricing).”
Wall has said he will not sign any agreement that imposes a carbon tax on Saskatchewan, in part because he says the federal government hasn’t done enough to study how many jobs could be lost or how it will affect prices for consumers.
“If we want to build or replace a culvert in a ditch, if there are two frogs and a fish affected we have to do an environmental impact assessment,” he said.
“Well, here we are making this huge change in how we do business in Canada … and there’s been no economic impact assessment from the feds.”
Wall was speaking from Ottawa, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with the provincial and territorial premiers as they try to nail down a national climate change plan.
Trudeau announced in early October that he would impose a carbon tax in 2018 on any province that hasn’t enacted its own carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme.
Wall called it a “betrayal” and said at the time that the carbon tax will reduce the provincial economy by $2.5 billion annually and cost the average family $1,250 a year.
Hours after Wall’s comments, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a pan-Canadian climate change framework agreement had been reached, although Wall, along with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, did not sign on.
Peter Taptuna, the premier of Nunavut, told CTV’s Power Play that he accepts there is going to be a pricing on emissions, noting his territory is already seeing impacts from climate change.
“It’s affected our sea ice, our wildlife, our people, including … melting the permafrost where there’s infrastructure built,” he said.
Taptuna added that northerners already face an especially high cost of living, due to the fact that most of their food and building materials are flown in, so he’s looking to the federal government for help “assisting us with adaptation and mitigation and to lessen the impact of carbon taxes.”
