In the recent Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing
Act on the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing
Act (GGPPA), the majority of the Court of Appeal
assured its readers that it was not wading into the myriad of
political issues evoked by the reference. Instead, they were asked
only to opine on whether the federal government has the
constitutional jurisdiction to enact the GGPPA. The
court's significant departure from existing constitutional
law doctrine may, to some readers, render those assertions less
convincing. They do, however, provide for a fascinating read.
The majority found the GGPPA wholly unconstitutional,
in a treatise of a judgment explaining why the federal government
is without any authority to legislate regarding “GHG
emissions”— even holding that its attempt to do so was
“constitutional chutzpah.” Justice Thomas W.
Wakeling's concurring opinion was replete with hypothetical
analogies of British Columbia pine beetles threatening Alberta
