Lawyers in court to defend the Justin Trudeau government’s carbon-pricing scheme were asked why Ontarians should have to pay more when they’ve already achieved a 22% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
A five-judge panel at the Ontario Court of Appeal repeatedly tested the Trudeau government’s position that a carbon tax must be national in scope to ensure a reduction in greenhouse gases and a level playing field for industries in all parts of the country.
“We’re only saying that the national dimension of the problem comes within federal jurisdiction,” said lawyer Sharlene Telles-Langdon, who appeared in court on behalf of the Attorney General of Canada.
Justice Grant Huscroft asked whether the federal case was based on the notion that carbon pricing is the only way to deal with greenhouse gas emissions, ignoring a large step already taken in Ontario to close coal-fired generation plants.
“Pricing is a means to the end; it’s not the end,” Huscroft said.
Justice James MacPherson also made note of Ontario’s 22% reduction in greenhouse gases, asking should Ontarians pay an extra burden because other provinces are failing to achieve emission reduction targets.
“Why don’t you just leave them alone?” he asked.
The Doug Ford government is challenging the right of the federal government to impose a carbon tax on gasoline and other fuels, a move that it argues treads on many areas of provincial responsibility under the Constitution.
Telles-Langdon argued the carbon-pricing plan “intrudes minimally on provincial jurisdiction,” and can be justified because greenhouse gases are not a local problem, but rather an issue that must be addressed nationally and internationally.
Had the Ford government maintained Kathleen Wynne’s cap-and-trade program, then the federal government would not have had to step in to fill in the gap, she said.
“We’re not forcing the Ontario government to do pricing,” Telles-Langdon insisted.
If the Ontario Court of Appeal were to rule the federal government had jurisdiction over lowering greenhouse gas emissions, it wasn’t immediately clear how far Ottawa would go in introducing measures to tackle the problem, Huscroft said.
Telles-Langdon said the federal government would never ban wood-burning fireplaces across Canada, as the Ontario government claims could happen.
But the carbon tax — which is meant to change behaviour — only works properly if every part of the country participates, she insisted.
The hearing continues, and is expected to last four days.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
