Carbon pricing in Canada

[9] Similarly, legal challenges to the law failed on March 25, 2021, when the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the 2019 appeal of the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, ruling in Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act that the GHGPPA was constitutional.

[12] On December 11, 2008, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said that a carbon tax is preferable to a cap-and-trade program, which "inevitably introduces unnecessary cost and complexity".

[13] An unpopular revenue-neutral carbon tax was proposed in 2008 during the Canadian federal election, by Stéphane Dion, then leader of the Liberal Party.

It was the main plank of Dion's platform and allegedly contributed to the defeat of the Liberal Party, which won its lowest-ever share of the popular vote in the country's history.

The commission was established with the participation of Paul Martin, Jim Dinning, Preston Manning, and Jack Mintz on November 4, 2014,[19] and became the leading advocacy group in Canada for carbon pricing.

The article, which summarized the report, said that Canada's climate targets were the "weakest ... of any major industrialised economy which experts say was a "direct result" of Stephen Harper government's hard line policies" and its "promotion" of the "vast reserves of tar sands in Alberta" that are highly polluting".

"[38] According to a December 13, 2018, CTV News article, Stewart Elgie, from the Environment Institute at the University of Ottawa, the CCC's "endorsement of the carbon tax as the most efficient emissions-cutting tool" and its support of "Canada's investments in clean technology at home and abroad" provides the Canadian economy with a "major opportunity ... to market itself in a low-carbon future".

[39]: 10  The report recommended that Environment and Climate Change Canada consider exemptions for agricultural activities under the GHGPPA, with "special attention to competitiveness for producers and food affordability for Canadians".

[52] In its April 25, 2019 report, Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that the federal government "will generate CA$2.63 billion in carbon pricing revenues in 2019-20.

[60] British Columbia was the first Canadian province to join the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), which was established in February 2007 by the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[62] In 2013, Angel Gurría, then-Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said that the "implementation of British Columbia's carbon tax is as near as we have to a textbook case, with wide coverage across sectors and a steady increase in the rate" over a period of five years.

[74] On November 23, 2015, the Alberta government announced a carbon tax scheme similar to British Columbia's in that it would apply to the entire economy.

[20] In a 2015 Maclean's article, economist Trevor Tombe wrote that "[p]ricing carbon is one of the most sensible policy prescriptions to address greenhouse gas emissions".

[76] In 2019, the first piece of legislation introduced by the newly elected Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, was Bill 1, An Act to Repeal the Carbon Tax.

"[79] In September 2017, the Wynne government joined the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), established in February 2007 by the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

*April 24, 2007: British Columbia joined with the five western states, turning the WCI into an international partnership[61] with the goal of developing a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.and link its cap-and-trade system with Quebec's and California's in January 2018.

This harmonized carbon market will be the second largest in the world, trailing only the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and will feature joint permit auctions.

[61] In October 2018, the newly elected Progressive Conservative government under premier Doug Ford cancelled the previous cap-and-trade system, as he had promised in his electoral campaign.

[82] In April 2019, the provincial government introduced the Federal Carbon Tax Transparency Act as part of its budget, which makes it mandatory for all gas stations (excluding those situated on Indian reserves) to display government-commissioned decals on their pumps informing customers of the claimed "cost" of the carbon tax—increasing gas prices by 4.4 cents per litre and up to 11 cents per litre by 2022.

The decals include the URL of a page on the Ontario government's website that explains its position on the tax, but they do not mention the rebate program.

[83] The act was criticized by the Ontario NDP, with MPP Peter Tabuns accusing Ford of "threatening private business owners with massive fines for failing to post Conservative Party advertisement[s]".

The government defended the decals and act, considering it "transparency" that reminds Ontario residents of the "costs" of the Liberal carbon tax.

[86][85] Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner accused Ford of "forcing businesses to be complicit in his anti-climate misinformation campaign" and invited gas stations to help him inform the public that "climate change will cost us more" with his own version of the decal.

[87] The Canadian Civil Liberties Association took the Ontario government to court over the mandatory stickers, arguing the messages were “a form of compelled political expression.” In September 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sided with the CCLA, ruling that Ford's mandatory gas-pump decals attacking federal carbon-pricing measures were unconstitutional and violated business owners' freedom of expression.

"[90] The OBPS rules apply to large facilities in Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and Nunavut, the "provinces covered by the federal backstop policy.

"[90] In spring 2018, the federal government "proposed that all fossil fuel-burning generating stations be treated the same with the first 420 tonnes of greenhouse gases per gigawatt hour of electricity produced exempt from carbon taxes and everything above that subject to a charge.

"[91][Notes 1] In June 2018, John Ivison wrote in the National Post that the Conservative Party was attempting to make the carbon tax "the single issue" of the 2019 federal election campaign.

[8] He argued that Andrew Scheer's leadership had interpreted Doug Ford's election as premier of Ontario as "an explicit rejection of the carbon tax".

[102] In March 2024, Poilievre called for a non-confidence vote in the federal government in the House of Commons to prevent the April 1 increase in the carbon price.

Its goal was to slow traffic on major highways and at borders to protest the increase of the federal consumer carbon price to $15 per tonne.