News Release
From Environment and Climate Change Canada
January 15, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario
Canadians know that pollution isn’t free. They see the costs in droughts, floods, extreme weather events, and the impacts to their health. A price on carbon pollution is one of the most efficient tools we have to fight climate change and drive clean innovation. That’s why the federal government is working with provinces and territories to put a price on carbon across the country.
Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, and the Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, released draft legislative proposals relating to the proposed federal carbon pricing system for public comment. This system would apply in provinces and territories that request it and in those that don’t have a system in place, which meets the federal standard in 2018.
Minister McKenna also released for comment a regulatory framework describing the proposed federal approach to carbon pricing for large industrial facilities. This component of the federal pricing system would create a price incentive for large industrial facilities to reduce emissions while limiting the potential impacts of carbon pricing on their international competitiveness. The system is designed to reward facilities with efficient operations and support clean innovation.
Right now, carbon pricing is in place in four provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec), covering more than 80 percent of the population. All provinces have committed to adopt some form of carbon pricing.
The Government will continue to engage provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous Peoples, industry, environmental groups, and other stakeholders on the design of the federal carbon pricing system during the winter and spring of 2018.
The draft legislative proposals and the framework released today build on the pan-Canadian approach to carbon pricing, announced in October 2016. The documents represent the next step in the development of the federal system, and they are a follow-up to a technical paper on federal carbon pricing released in May 2017.
Comments on the draft legislative proposals to implement the federal carbon pricing system are welcome until February 12, 2018, at carbonpricing-tarificationcarbone@canada.ca.
Comments on the regulatory framework are welcome until April 9, 2018, at ec.tarificationducarbone-carbonpricing.ec@canada.ca.
The combination of existing provincial carbon pricing systems, new provincial and territorial carbon pricing systems, and the federal system would ensure a price on carbon across Canada.
Global momentum is driving cleaner economic growth, and many Canadian businesses are already taking advantage of this opportunity. In addition to pricing carbon, the federal government is making other significant investments to enable Canadian businesses and workers to participate in the trillion-dollar opportunities offered by the world’s transition to a clean-growth economy.
