Supreme Court ruling signals start of a Canada-wide effort on climate change

On March 25, Canada’s Supreme Court handed down a big win for the climate by declaring the federal government’s proposed carbon price to be constitutional. The proposed carbon price, known as the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, was implemented in 2019 as a central component of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate plan. With this law, the federal government exercises its right to impose a carbon tax on Canada’s provinces. The carbon tax was met with fierce resistance from Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, which claimed the law was a violation of their jurisdictional sovereignty. 

 The argument of the opposing provinces rested on the “peace, order, and good governance” clause in the Canadian constitution. This clause states that laws will fall under the jurisdiction of the provinces unless there is a situation of national concern. The majority opinion of the Supreme Court ruling was that climate change was a national concern, one that “no one province, territory, or country can address […] on its own.” However, the Supreme Court also noted that the carbon pricing system would only apply in cases where provinces or territories do not have their own systems in place that are robust enough to reduce emissions. 

 This decision ends a drawn-out legal challenge that prevented meaningful action from being taken to mitigate climate change. The federal pricing plan essentially guarantees country-wide cooperation—a critical condition to meeting the 2050 goal of net-zero emissions. With no more arenas to fight in, the parties against the carbon pricing system must come together and contribute to the Canadian effort. Saskatchewan is heading in this direction, as its premier has suggested the province will implement its own carbon pricing system. As of yet, neither details of the plan nor a timeline for submission have been released.

 According to the Pembina Institute, “a well-designed carbon pricing system is an indispensable part of any cost-efficient and effective climate strategy.” Canada’s plan has also received support from the American Petroleum Institute—an endorsement that signals a monumental shift in a group that has previously fought against climate action. This shift can also be seen in traditionally fossil-fuel based companies like ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron, whose leaders recently expressed support for a carbon pricing plan during a call with the White House. 

 Unfortunately, this same commitment is not generally reflected in Canada’s own conservative movement. Canadian conservatives have long focused their efforts on fighting liberal-proposed climate policies. For example, when Doug Ford became premier of Ontario, he dismantled the province’s cap and trade system. Ontario has yet to put in place an effective replacement for the cap-and-trade policy, and the province has reversed course on greening the electricity grid. Similar promises were previously made by the federal Conservative Party to scrap the national carbon pricing plan. Given that approximately two-thirds of potential conservative voters surveyed by Clean Prosperity in 2020 did not agree with using tax dollars to fight the carbon tax, this vehement opposition strategy would only hurt the federal Conservative Party in the next election. These consistent attacks on Liberal climate policies, coupled with the recent federal Conservative Party’s vote against a resolution acknowledging climate change, risks painting the Canadian conservative movement as climate-change deniers. 

Seemingly aware of the harm that an anti-climate change image can do to his party, leader Erin O’Toole released a conservative climate plan on April 15. Similar to the current government’s plan, the Conservative plan includes its own version of carbon pricing, an acknowledgement of the effectiveness of the policy. This climate plan should be celebrated, as it signals the first time in history that all three major Canadian parties are acknowledging the threat of climate change. However, critics of the Conservative plan cite its potential revision of a carbon price for heavy industry as a “serious uncertainty” in the Conservative approach. To remain on track to a net-zero 2050, the Conservative climate plan for Canada needs to be equally, if not more, ambitious than the Liberal climate plan.