The contentious issue surrounding the federal government’s carbon tax announcement has put the Saskatchewan Party’s relationship with the Liberal government in the spotlight.
On Monday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the provinces would either have to adopt a minimum tax on carbon at $10 per tonne by 2018, and up to $50 per tonne by 2022, or introduce a comparable cap and trade system.
The move was met with strong opposition from Premier Brad Wall who said Ottawa’s plan is a “betrayal” and shows a “stunning” level of disrespect.
Teri Fikowski spoke to Global’s chief political correspondent Tom Clark on what’s become a heated issue.
Q: Brad Wall hasn’t hid his opinion in the last few days about a carbon tax and towards Justin Trudeau in particular – how does this impact the pair’s relationship?
A: It’s already pretty bad.
I think for the first time in Canadian history there was a Twitter war between the Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of a province.
Then there was a phone call afterwards where Trudeau admitted it was a very spirited call, which is diplomatic language for saying they probably yelled at each other and hung up on each other after a while.
So, there’s not much of a relationship there on this issue but this is politics. It comes down to who can win. You’ve got to start off by saying, ‘does Brad Wall really think he can turn this around?’ After all, he’s only one of three Premier’s who don’t’ like it, the big guys have already signed on. So, that’s the real question, how much huff does he have?
Q: Brad Wall says the move will cost Saskatchewan roughly two billion dollars, and residents close to a thousand dollars, but without all provinces on his side is he fighting an upward battle?
A: It’s actually going to be 2.5 – 2.6 billion dollars generated in Saskatchewan, but when he says it’s going to be siphoned out of the province he’s wrong. Dead wrong. Because he’ll get that money back, every penny of it back, and then he can decide what he wants to do with it. He can give it back to the people of Saskatchewan, he can subsidize farmers, he can subsidize heavy industry, he can do whatever he wants with that money. It’s not leaving Saskatchewan, it’s staying in Saskatchewan. But, what he objects to is that’s it’s the feds doing this and not the provinces. But when you look at the public opinion polling, and it’s different in every province, overall Canadians and even the oil industry itself has accepted the fact that putting a price on carbon is inevitable. The oil industry has been calling for a carbon tax, if you want to call it that, for some time now. So more and more Brad Wall is expressing an opinion that is not shared by the majority of Canadians or the oil industry itself.
It’s not to say he hasn’t’ got a lot of fight in him or that he can’t get people on his side, but it’s an upwards battle.
Q: Regina MP Andrew Scheer, who’s also running for the Conservative leadership, has now called on Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to resign, saying he should be standing with his province and the premier. Your thoughts on that?
A: If you spend time in Ottawa as long as I have, I think every cabinet minister has been told to resign regardless of party. “Resign” is a word you hear up here a lot. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. Andrew Scheer is obviously trying to come in behind Brad Wall because there’s significant public opinion in Saskatchewan that says they are on the side of Brad Wall. But it’s an uphill battle. In the end, in the real politics of what’s going on, it’s going to be hard for Brad Wall to refuse this. Yes he says he’ll take it to the courts, he’ll say it’s unconstitutional but that’s up to the Supreme Court. So there’s a long road ahead.
Q: Does it put Goodale in an awkward spot having always been a popular man in the province?
A: Yes because politically you have to remember this, Brad Wall has enormous support in Saskatchewan but the federal liberals and Justin Trudeau have a fair amount of support as well. And there’s people in Saskatchewan who don’t necessarily buy into the idea that there should absolutely be no price. I think everybody’s waiting for Brad Wall to describe exactly what his solution is. Carbon capture and storage is very promising but it’s very expensive – where is that money going to come from? So, I think it’s going to be difficult to create a big popular movement around this one but that’s not going to stop Brad Wall from trying.
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