The New Brunswick Select Committee on Climate Change presented their final report to government with 85 recommendations for tackling climate change and reaching greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets.
The biggest of those recommendations is an open and transparent holding account for carbon revenue — a carbon tax fund — which the government would invest back into reaching its GHG reduction goals.
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New Brunswick has a goal of a 10 per cent reduction of 1990 GHG levels by 2020, reaching at least a 35 per cent reduction by 2030.
The proposal of a carbon tax fund coincides with the federal mandate to institute carbon pricing.
The non-partisan committee heard from hundreds of concerned citizens and industry experts during months of consultations throughout the province in advance of tabling the report, which now in the hands of provincial leaders.
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“The government has to show leadership on this and they will, I believe,” said committee chair, Andrew Harvey. “By taking that money, investing it wisely to reduce industrial emissions, electrical generation emissions and transportation emissions.”
“There has to be dedicated money to attack these problems,” Harvey said.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick commended the committee on undertaking the consultation process and for recommending that new carbon revenue be used to encourage more sustainable energy practices.
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“The cost of that pollution is actually being put on the burden of taxpayers through other costs, health costs, coastal erosion things like that,” explained Dr. Louise Comeau.
“We want the money to go back into a fund because that allows for investments to go back to businesses, back to consumers to say we’re going to help you make that transition.”
New Brunswick Green Party Leader David Coon, who sat on the committee, says the process they undertook, as well as the recent direction from Prime Minister Trudeau, shows a transition in how climate change is viewed in the province and the country.
“We’ve got the federal government clearly on side here,” said Coon. “I’m expecting to see a whole series of announcements in November from the federal government that will line up nicely with the kind of recommendations we’ve made to move both Canada and New Brunswick towards a low carbon society.”
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P.C. MLA’s Jody Carr and Brian Kierstead also took part in the non-partisan committee and voiced their disagreement with including carbon pricing in the final report.
New Brunswick’s Environment Minister Serge Rousselle wouldn’t confirm whether the province would institute a carbon tax fund as recommended by the report, indicating the government plans on further reviewing the study before making a final decision.
“We just have to find now what is the best solution for New Brunswick,” Rousselle said. “There’s a lot of modelling to be done and that’s what we’re going to do.”
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