EDITORIAL: PM's climate policies unfair

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government last week arbitrarily rejected a plan by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to reduce the impact of carbon pricing on his residents by reducing provincial fuel taxes.

The premier’s issue is that New Brunswick and P.E.I. were permitted to do the same thing by the federal government.

As Moe tweeted in response to the federal rejection, “The Trudeau government cannot have one standard for the east and another for the west …

“The decision to reject our province’s plan can only be viewed as arbitrary and political, further showcasing how out of touch the federal government is with Saskatchewan’s major contributions in reducing emissions at home and abroad.”

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said, as the Trudeau government has previously announced, that Ottawa will be renegotiating with all the provinces regarding their carbon pricing schemes with a view to implementing reforms in 2023, so there will be no changes until then.

But a skeptic would say Saskatchewan is being arbitrarily singled out for punishment because it was one of the three provinces, along with Ontario and Alberta, that challenged Trudeau’s carbon tax in court, eventually losing at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Whatever Ottawa’s motives here, treating a western province differently from eastern provinces on carbon taxes is another unwelcome strain on national unity, already under stress because of the anger in Alberta over Trudeau’s carbon pricing policies and energy policies.

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In addition, federal complaints that lowering provincial fuel taxes to offset rising carbon taxes reduces the effectiveness of carbon pricing in reducing greenhouse gas emissions are hypocritical.

Federal rebates to offset the increased costs of carbon pricing to taxpayers and consumers are intrinsic to Trudeau’s carbon tax scheme.

Those rebates apply in four provinces where Trudeau imposed his carbon tax — Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan —arguably another reason the feds rejected Saskatchewan’s proposal.

The larger issue raised by the federal-Saskatchewan dispute is that under the Trudeau government, there is a hodge-podge of different and little-understood carbon pricing schemes across the country, in which the provinces and their citizens are being treated differently by Ottawa.

Meanwhile, the only “solution” the Trudeau government offers — if re-elected — is future negotiations with the provinces, unlikely to fix these inequities.