Saskatchewan Environment Minister Dustin Duncan says he anticipates hearing a result on the province’s challenge against the carbon tax through the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in the spring.
“We were prepared, the federal government asked for more time, so that did kick it into 2019,” Duncan said.
“We were hoping one way or the other to have a little more certainty before the end of the year, but that’s not going to be the case.”
Ottawa plans on imposing a carbon tax on jurisdictions that don’t have a climate plan that meets their standards in January. Duncan added he hoped the federal government would wait until after the court ruling.
“There was a time, not too long ago, it seemed the federal government was going to impose their plan on only one province, Saskatchewan. In the context of Saskatchewan, a probably pretty easy thing to do,” Duncan said.
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“Now they’re going to likely imposing it on Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, two of the four Atlantic provinces, maybe more than that though.”
Ontario will be acting as an intervener in Saskatchewan’s case, and may be filing their own challenge in that province’s Court of Appeal.
When Saskatchewan launched their challenge, the basis was questioning the constitutional power to levy a federal tax against one province and not others.
Duncan said the argument still stands even though more province now oppose the carbon tax.
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