Kinew wants carbon tax exemption from Ottawa without price on pollution

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This article was published 04/04/2024 (861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s premier says his proposed provincial exemption to the carbon tax won’t include a price on pollution, but the prime minister said any alternative must include a “price signal.”

Wab Kinew said Thursday his government is developing a plan to show that the province can achieve net-zero emissions with a carbon tax exemption.

At an unrelated news conference, alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Kinew said said he hopes the federal government will grant an exemption, pointing to the province’s clean hydroelectric grid and investments in carbon-reducing programs, as well as other aspects of a provincial plan, to be finalized later.

Trudeau said he’s happy to work with Kinew on an exemption plan, but any measures any province take must include carbon pricing.

“A number of jurisdictions have moved forward with different measures that are different from the federal backstop, that keep a price signal on pollution while they invest in renewables, while they continue to reach for net zero, and that’s an important part of the entire conversation that we’re having,” the Liberal PM said.

“But what remains essential is that it cannot be free to pollute anywhere around the country.”

But later, at the legislature, Kinew confirmed he wants the price removed in Manitoba.

“We want the federal backstop to be removed,” the NDP premier told reporters. “We’ve got a credible path to net-zero, so we’re going to work together with that other level of government just to find an approach that works for Manitobans.

“We’ve got our starting point and the prime minister (has) articulated his position, so we’ll just take it from here.”

The Manitoba budget tabled this week gives new incentives to people to buy electric vehicles and switch home heat systems to cleaner energy.

The government introduced a bill Thursday, the Captured Carbon Storage Act, which is a licensing framework for carbon capture.

Kinew said the bill is part of the province’s overall framework to achieve net-zero emissions.

Manitoba’s previous Progressive Conservative government tried to avoid the federal price through green initiatives and a lower carbon price, but was unable to convince Ottawa.

Tory MLA Obby Khan said Kinew is “playing with smoke and mirrors.”

“That is worth nothing, that is all talk,” Khan said of Kinew’s no-price proposal.

“The prime minister has said numerous times… that there will be no carve-outs, there’ll be no additional changes, unless the provincial program backstops the federal program.”

The federal carbon tax increased Monday, affecting the consumer levy.

The charge is added to the price of more than 20 different fuel sources that produce greenhouse-gas emissions when burned for energy, including gasoline, propane, diesel and natural gas. The tax on gasoline went from $65 per tonne to $80.

Ninety per cent of expected revenues, as calculated annually by Environment and Climate Change Canada, are then rebated to households. Part of the remaining percentage goes to increase rural resident rebates.

Some of the rest is meant to help businesses become more fuel-efficient, but those programs have been slow to roll out.

— with files from the Canadian Press

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca