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While Justin Trudeau continues to extol the virtues of putting a price on carbon pollution, his Liberal Party’s preferred mechanism for doing that may not be all that different from what Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are already doing: Leaving it up to the provinces.
In an interview with AM980 talk radio in London, Ont., where Trudeau’s caucus met at its winter retreat earlier this week, he said it’s no longer up to the federal government to impose a particular type of carbon pricing to slow climate change.
“We’ve had nine years of Stephen Harper’s government where there’s been absolutely no leadership on the environmental file, and failing that kind of leadership … a number of different provinces have moved ahead,” he told host Andrew Lawton.
“It’s up to the federal government to catch up, and to co-ordinate and make sure Canada is seen as taking this seriously,” the Liberal leader said.
But when asked what he would do if he were to win the next election and become prime minister, Trudeau suggested the time had passed for a centralized, federal approach.
“B.C. has a carbon tax, Alberta has picked up a sort of a carbon tax, Ontario’s bringing in its own plan. Quebec is part of a cap and trade with some other regions,” Trudeau said. “We have 86 per cent of Canadians now living in provinces that have put a price on carbon.”
(Trudeau’s calculation includes the population of Ontario, which is expected to reveal its carbon pricing strategy very soon.)
“The mechanism through which we do that should be up to various provinces because they’ve already taken the lead on that, and what the federal government needs to do is co-ordinate that and oversee the implementation,” he said.
The Liberal leader’s remarks appear to signal that a top-down energy strategy won’t be part of the second-generation Trudeau’s governing plans. It’s about “the need to respect provinces,” his team says.
