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Last week the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments on whether Ottawa’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA) is constitutionally valid. The GGPPA authorizes the federal carbon tax in provinces that do not meet the federal government’s minimum requirements for climate policy. The governments of Canada and British Columbia, citing the constitution’s “Peace, Order and Good Government” clause, argue that climate change is an issue of national concern that requires a minimum national standard since any province’s failure to regulate would have adverse effects everywhere. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario disagree — as did the Alberta Court of Appeal, as well as several dissenting judges in the Saskatchewan and Ontario Courts of Appeal, when this case was heard in lower courts.
It’s important to understand that the case is not about whether carbon taxes are good policy — it’s about whether the federal government has the authority to impose minimum national standards to manage greenhouse gases.