This week, the federal government announced its intention to
implement its carbon pricing regime beginning in 2019. Certain
provinces and territories1 have requested the
application of all or part of the federal regime. Other provinces
are on track to meet federal requirements with their own carbon
pricing systems.2 The federal carbon pricing system will
be imposed on four provinces that have neither accepted the
application of the federal regime nor taken sufficient independent
action: Saskatchewan, Ontario, Manitoba and New
Brunswick.3
Saskatchewan, whose output-based performance standard system
only partially meets federal reduction requirements, strongly
opposes the federal regime. Having first refused to sign on to the
Pan-Canadian Framework on Climate Change, Saskatchewan subsequently
challenged Ottawa's jurisdiction to impose the carbon levy by
initiating a constitutional reference in the Saskatchewan Court of
Appeal, scheduled to be heard in spring 2019.
