The war of words over the price on pollution reached a new level this week with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warning Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe that the Canada Revenue Agency will be knocking on his door, looking for the province’s remittance from the federal backstop, after Moe stopped collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating.
“Good luck Premier Moe, CRA is an independent organization that is very, very good at getting money it is owed from Canadians from businesses, and now from provinces, if it has to,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference Wednesday, after vowing that Saskatchewan residents would still receive the Canada Carbon Rebate.
In October 2023, Premier Moe announced his government would stop collecting and remitting the carbon levy on certain forms of energy, after the federal government instituted a three-year exemption on home heating oil. That fuel is primarily used in Atlantic Canada and was seen as a political carve-out for that region of the country.
In February, the Saskatchewan government confirmed it would be recognized as the individual supplier of natural gas by the Canada Revenue Agency. By not collecting and remitting the carbon tax, the province is violating the law and risking fines or legal repercussions.
In an email to CTV News responding to Trudeau’s warning, Moe’s office said the province has “remitted the appropriate amount of carbon tax to the federal government.”
“We will dispute any action from the CRA to collect additional carbon tax and we will defend Saskatchewan’s interests as required,” the premier’s spokesperson, Julie Leggott, added in an email.
The Canada Revenue Agency has not responded to CTV News’ request for comment on how the organization intends to collect the money from the province, but there appears to be another way the federal government could call the province out.
Buried on page 408 of the federal budget is a proposal to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to give federal officials, like the Minister of National Revenue, the power to tell the public when a province isn’t complying with the federal pollution pricing system.
For months, a number of premiers have voiced their opposition to the federal price on pollution imposed on those jurisdictions that didn’t have their own, or whose plans did not meet the federal government’s standard. In light of the latest Moe-Trudeau showdown, questions were raised around whether other provinces could follow suit and stop collecting the carbon levy on home heating, and still see their residents be refunded.
CTV News cast a net across the country to inquire with the provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador – which have asked the federal government to pause or remove the federal carbon tax. We learned that not all of them can stop collecting the levy for the federal backstop. Here’s why.
Alberta
“We don’t have that possibility,” Premier Danielle Smith said in October 2023 when asked if she would follow Premier Moe.
Alberta isn’t able to because that province has a private energy market, meaning private operators pay the tax directly to the federal government. Smith has said she won’t ask private-sector operators to be out of compliance with the law.
“Alberta stands with Saskatchewan and Premier Scott Moe in their fight against the unfair and unconstitutional region-specific and fuel-specific application of the carbon tax,” Premier Smith’s press secretary, Sam Blackett, wrote in an email.
Ontario
The province of Ontario is in a similar situation as Alberta where home heating energy is supplied by private companies. The director of media relations for Premier Doug Ford told CTV News that Ontario would never ask private companies to violate federal law.
“The federal government should simply do the right, fair thing and eliminate the carbon tax across the board,” Caitlin Clark said.
Nova Scotia
The Minister of Environment and Climate Change for Nova Scotia, Timothy Halman, is strongly opposed to the federal price on pollution, but pointed out, like in other provinces, the levy is remitted by private natural gas companies. As a result, the province has no role in collecting the carbon tax on natural gas.
In a statement, Halman pointed to his government’s greenhouse gas reduction target contained in a policy called the “Still Better than a Carbon Tax Plan.” Among other things, the policy calls for the phasing out of coal-fired electricity generation and to have 80 per cent of Nova Scotia’s energy supplied by renewables by 2030.
Prince Edward Island
While Premier Dennis King has been an opponent of the federal carbon tax, his government will not be following Premier Moe’s lead.
In a statement to CTV News, Emily Blue from the office of the premier said, “This is not something that PEI is considering at this time.”
Newfoundland and Labrador
The lone Liberal premier to call for a halt to the carbon tax reiterated that position at the beginning of the month in a letter to Trudeau. Andrew Furey wrote, “We need a constructive approach to decarbonize our environment without placing the burden on individual families who simply do not have viable alternative options.”
Asked if Newfoundland and Labrador would follow Saskatchewan, Furey’s director of communications Meghan McCabe told CTV News in a statement, “Premier Furey has been clear that the carbon tax is not the right instrument to mitigate the impact of climate change at this time in our province, and continues to ask the federal government to adjust its policy.”
New Brunswick
Officials from Premier Blaine Higgs’ office did not respond to CTV News’ request for comment.
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