Alberta (Canada) introduces bill to repeal provincial carbon tax

The newly-elected government of Alberta, one of the main crude oil producing provinces of Canada, has introduced a bill to repeal the provincial carbon tax that was approved by the previous Alberta government, a measure that should provide a CAD1.4bn (US$1bn) tax relief. With this provincial carbon tax repealed, Alberta will have to pay the federal "backstop"carbon tax announced in October 2018 and that will be imposed in the provinces and territories that have no adequate carbon emission pricing plans and refused to adopt the country-wide CO₂ pricing system. The Alberta government has already rejected this measure and plans to join Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan by challenging the federal carbon tax in court.

The federal "backstop" mechanism applies in Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan since April 2019, and will be extended in Nunavut and Yukon as of July 2019: in these provinces, proceeds from the new tax will go directly back to taxpayers (direct rebates named "Climate Action Incentive payments"). The other provinces, namely Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador will comply with the federal benchmark.

Canada's nationwide climate-change strategy includes a carbon tax, which has to be either adopted by the provinces or imposed by the federal government. The tax will rise by CAD10/tCO₂eq (around US$7.6/tCO₂eq) each year from CAD20/tCO₂eq (around US$15.3/tCO₂eq) in 2019 to CAD50/tCO₂eq (around US$38/tCO₂eq) by 2022.