Canadian court rules federal carbon pricing plan constitutional

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal (Canada) has ruled that Canada's federal carbon-pricing plan is constitutional, rejecting a challenge from the Saskatchewan provincial government that claimed that the federal government could not impose such a tax. The government of Ontario is also challenging the federal carbon pricing policy in courts, while Alberta has committed to remove the provincial levy recently created.

In October 2018, the federal government of Canada announced that it would impose a "backstop" carbon tax on fuels in the provinces and territories that have no adequate carbon emission pricing plans and refused to adopt the country-wide CO₂ pricing system. This "backstop" mechanism will apply in Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan as of April 2019, and 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, Alberta, 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.