Alberta Tells Carney to Take His Carbon Tax Increase & Do Something Else With It
By M Dowling
Prime Minister Mark Carney is doubling down on taxing Alberta into poverty. He claims it’s necessary for trade with the UK, EU, and Asia. The real problem is that they want Alberta’s money to fund everything else.
On Monday, Danielle Smith froze Alberta’s industrial carbon price at the current rate of $95 per tonne of emissions. The province’s industrial carbon tax system, known as TIER (Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction), covers this rate.
Carney wants to raise it to $170 by the decade’s end.
Premier Smith is using the Trump tariffs as the reason for the freeze.
She can freeze the tax. However, Tier must show they are meeting Federal guidelines. While she can do it for now, she won’t meet the benchmarks when it reaches $110 federally by 2026.
Smith said on Monday that she intends to halt further price hikes on industrial carbon emissions to provide certainty and economic relief for industries with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly oil and gas, electricity (most of the generation in Alberta comes from natural gas), petrochemicals, manufacturing, mining, cement, pulp and paper.
She has guts!
Alberta sends $20B a year to Ottawa, which the province never sees returned in benefits or respect.
Premier Smith will now talk with companies and gather data.
