Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says she has given notice to the provincial government in Alberta that the federal government will begin imposing its price on carbon in the province beginning Jan.1, 2020.
McKenna made the announcement in Ottawa today, a week after Alberta’s Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell signed the province’s Carbon Tax Repeal Act into law.
“As a result of Alberta’s decision to make it free to pollute in Alberta, we will have the federal price on pollution,” she said. “It’s unfortunate, because Alberta had a made-in-Alberta plan to put a price on pollution.”
McKenna said Canada needs Alberta to take part in the pan-Canadian framework on climate change because it’s the province with the highest emissions in the country.
Under the terms of the framework — a deal agreed to by most of the provinces and the federal government in December 2016 — provinces had to develop policies to put a price on carbon through a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.
As a part of the plan, Ottawa said it would impose a tax on provinces that refuse to develop their own plans — at a rate of $20 on every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2019, rising by $10 each year to $50 a tonne by 2022.