{"id":208389,"date":"2019-04-04T05:28:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T09:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=208389"},"modified":"2019-04-04T05:28:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T09:28:59","slug":"manitoba-joins-two-other-provinces-challenging-federal-carbon-tax-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/04\/manitoba-joins-two-other-provinces-challenging-federal-carbon-tax-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba joins two other provinces challenging federal carbon tax in court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Premier Brian Pallister says his government will ask a federal court to rule Ottawa has overstepped its bounds. (File Photo:<\/a> Brian Pallister\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WINNIPEG — Manitoba has joined a list of conservative-led provinces challenging the federal government’s backstop carbon tax in court.<\/p>\n

Premier Brian Pallister says his government will ask a federal court to rule Ottawa has overstepped its bounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOttawa cannot impose a carbon tax on a province that has a credible greenhouse-gas reduction plan of its own, and we do,\u201d Pallister said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He also said Manitoba’s court action is separate from those filed earlier in Saskatchewan and Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll observe other provinces’ cases with interest and learn from them, but their cases are not the same as the one we would make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick refused federal instructions to enact their own carbon levies. That prompted Ottawa to impose its own tax, which started Monday.<\/p>\n

The initial rate of $20 per tonne, which works out to 4.4 cents on each litre of gasoline and drives up other fuel costs, is to increase every year until it reaches $50 per tonne in 2022.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan challenged the constitutional authority of the federal government to impose the levy in a court case earlier this year. A ruling is expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has a court hearing later this month.<\/p>\n

Pallister said Manitoba’s challenge will be different because the province had planned to bring in a carbon tax of its own, but at a lower $25 per tonne rate that would not rise each year. The premier dropped that plan when the federal government said it was not good enough.<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Terry Duguid, who represents Winnipeg South, said Pallister is taking the wrong approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarbon pollution shouldn’t be a partisan issue. If some Conservative politicians choose to not do what’s right for our climate and our kids, we will,\u201d Duguid said in a written statement provided by the office of Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of wasting taxpayer dollars in court fighting climate action, we would have hoped to see the premier fight climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manitoba NDP Opposition Leader Wab Kinew called Pallister’s court challenge frivolous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that a court challenge will do nothing to fight climate change in Manitoba, and our children demand better,\u201d Kinew said in the legislature.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Pallister obtained a legal opinion from constitutional expert Bryan Schwartz. It said the federal government generally has the right to impose a carbon tax, but could be rebuffed if a province developed its own plan that would be equally effective in reducing emissions.<\/p>\n

Pallister said Manitoba’s challenge could take two years or more before it is heard, and may not be necessary if the Saskatchewan or Ontario governments win their cases.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the federal election set for October. Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has promised to revoke the carbon tax if he becomes prime minister.<\/p>\n

Pallister would not say whether he will revive the $25 carbon tax he originally planned if the federal levy is struck down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would not need to do that but, at the same time, I don’t want to prejudice the legitimacy of our court case by getting into hypotheticals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG — Manitoba has joined a list of conservative-led provinces challenging the federal government’s backstop carbon tax in court. Premier …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":201649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-steve-lambert","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208403,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208389\/revisions\/208403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}