Sarah Gabrielle Baron

Meeting all the following NGO’s this past week has been intense, many through the Fridays for Future Climate Justice rally on Friday, and many more through the lobbying group get-together on Monday night.  One of the most formative meetings for me was with long-time environment and peace activist Lyn Adamson.  Lyn talked about her lobbying efforts to get the current Liberal government to sign up to a carbon “fee and dividend”  plan, in the hopes that it’s simple enough and obviously-needed enough, that any new government (heaven forbid even a Conservative government) wouldn’t scrap it.  

After a lot of searching, I was finally able to find our current carbon reduction plan.  The full wording is cut and pasted, below. 

In my next blog, tomorrow, I will provide members with instructions on how to give the government feedback (they’re accepting feedback until September 30), based on assistance from an amazing group called “Below 2°C / Time4Action”.  They’ve provided simple prompts to help you work through the 22 questions the government proposed to citizens.  More on that tomorrow.  

To start, here is what our government is doing now. It’s supposed to be a “fee and dividend” system whereby polluters (like oil extraction companies) pay fees that increase every year.  Citizens should be receiving cheques, yes, physical cheques in the mail, from these funds.  Did you get yours? Did you know what it was from? I didn't!

 You can access it about halfway down on this link.

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/oil-gas-emissions-cap/options-discussion-paper.html#toc4

 The webpage is, overall, a dog’s breakfast of proposed half-measures and false flags, pie-in-the-sky projects which will never see the light of day, but which will steal our valuable tax dollars.  

Here’s where we’re at right now:

“Recap – Canada's current approach to economy-wide carbon pricing system

The Government's current approach to pricing carbon pollution gives provinces and territories the flexibility to implement a carbon pricing system that makes sense for their circumstances, provided that the system meets minimum national stringency criteria, as defined in the federal benchmark, to ensure systems across Canada are comparable and effective. Where a province or territory does not implement a system that meets the benchmark, the federal government implements the federal carbon pricing backstop system. Jurisdictions can also request the backstop system.

The benchmark includes a minimum national price per tonne of CO2 eq emissions for direct pricing systems that rises by $15 per year to $170 per tonne in 2030. The federal benchmark requires provinces and territories to implement either:

An explicit price-based system (i.e., (i) a carbon levy on fossil fuels, or (ii) a hybrid system comprised of a carbon levy on fossil fuels and an output-based pricing system for industry); or,

A cap-and-trade system (e.g. as currently exists in Quebec)

Under the benchmark, jurisdictions that implement cap and trade systems must put in place caps that correspond, at a minimum, to the projected emissions levels that would result from the application of the minimum national carbon price. Jurisdictions that implement explicit price-based systems must have a minimum carbon pollution price that matches the minimum national carbon price. In addition, output-based pricing systems for industry must be designed to maintain a marginal price signal equivalent to the minimum national carbon price across all covered emissions.

The GGPPA establishes the framework for the federal carbon pollution pricing backstop system. The GGPPA also provides the authority for the establishment of Canada's Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System.  

The federal carbon pollution pricing system consists of two parts:

a regulatory charge on fossil fuels (fuel charge); and

a regulatory trading system for industry, known as the OBPS.

The OBPS is designed to put a price on the carbon pollution of large industrial facilities, while mitigating the risks of carbon leakage and adverse competitiveness impacts due to carbon pollution pricing under the federal fuel charge or in certain cases, a provincial fuel charge or levy. Covered facilities are required to provide compensation for GHG emissions that exceed an emissions limit and are issued surplus credits if their emissions are lower than the applicable emissions limit. Facilities can sell surplus credits or bank them for use in future years, for up to five years since their date of issuance.

Currently, the federal OBPS is in place in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Nunavut, and partially in Saskatchewan.

The federal government is currently assessing provincial and territorial carbon pricing plans for 2023-2030 and will announce where the federal backstop will apply later this year.”

If you remember hearing about this fabulous plan in 2017, and now you have déjà vu, and you’re wondering what’s happened in the interim, you’re in good company.  In Ontario, the first thing Doug Ford did when elected was cancel the world-class cap and trade system between Ontario, California and Quebec. Not even a hand slap from the Trudeau Liberals since then.

My next blog will give directions provided by Below2°C/ Time4Action on how to give the government good feedback on their carbon and methane reduction plans.