QUESTION PERIOD — Natural Resources
Carbon Tax
June 29, 2021
Honourable senators, I have a question for Senator Gold.
In February 2020, during Question Period, I raised concerns that Canada may not meet its Paris climate targets under a federal carbon levy of $50 per tonne of greenhouse gases. You assured the chamber that the government was committed to its carbon pricing plan of “. . . a maximum of $50 per tonne from the year 2022 onwards.”
However, this month, in its first comprehensive assessment of Canada’s carbon pricing systems since their implementation, Environment and Climate Change Canada suggested:
. . . that the current level of carbon pricing contained in these projections is insufficient to reduce emissions in line with Canada’s Paris Agreement commitment . . . .
Senator Gold, how long did the government know that the $50 price target was insufficient? Why did they maintain that it would not increase above $50 beyond 2022?
Senator Smith, thank you for your question.
The government has always been clear that putting a price on carbon, a price on pollution, is one, but only one, of the many tools that Canada and any sensible country would need to put in place in order to bring ourselves to net zero.
The government remains committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and to that end has introduced — and we are in the process of debating — a historic legislation in Bill C-12 that will provide the framework, the accountability and the measures to ensure that we get on track and stay on track to achieve, if not to exceed, those targets.
Senator Gold, in 2019, at the summit of carbon pricing, former environment minister Catherine McKenna, when speaking on Canada’s climate plan, said:
Ours is using carbon pricing because it’s the most efficient way to reduce emissions, but also to make life affordable for folks. . . .
The government itself is now saying we will not meet our targets unless the carbon tax increases, making life less affordable for Canadians.
Senator Gold, at what cost will the government meet its Paris climate targets? Have there been calculations — obviously, there must have been — and will it be higher than the $170 per tonne that the Prime Minister announced in December? I think it’s important that we have some degree of clarity of thought so that, as citizens, we can understand what we’ll be facing.
Let me make two comments, and thank you for your question.
First of all, as this chamber well knows, the carbon pricing regime that is in place has, as one of its central features, the return to citizens’ pocketbooks amounts of money equal to or even greater perhaps, in some cases, than the carbon tax they’re paying.
The second point, and it disappoints me to have to say this yet again, is that carbon pricing is but one of many tools that any sensible environmental program will put in place. The fixation amongst some on carbon pricing alone, as if that is the only element in this government’s environmental strategy, is misleading to Canadians and does not do justice to the work that we have to do collectively to transition to a more sustainable not only economy and society, but indeed, planet.
