On Monday, October 3, Prime Minister Trudeau provided details of
the previously-announced federal plan to price carbon across
Canada. The federal plan, which is based on the principles accepted
by the First Ministers in the March 2016 Vancouver Declaration,
provides all Canadian provinces and territories with over a year to
introduce their own carbon pricing models (either an explicit price
or cap and trade) meeting the prescribed standards, failing which
the federal government will begin to levy an explicit carbon price
of its own on a broad set of emission sources at the specified
floor price in 2018. Putting a steadily increasing price on
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is widely viewed as an essential
part of a cost-effective plan to address climate change, and is
expected to help stimulate innovation, clean growth and
Canada's transition to a low-carbon economy.
