Andrew Lawton at the Carbon Tax Trial
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Summary
Ontario is taking the federal government to court over a carbon tax it wants to impose on provinces that refuse to implement their own carbon tax of their own. Andrew Lutton, Lauren Lutton and Darron Darron Lutton explain what s at stake in this high profile case.
Transcript
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I'm outside Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto where for the next four days the provincial
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government of Ontario will be taking the federal government's carbon tax to court.
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This is, you well know by now, the tax that Justin Trudeau has imposed on provinces that
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refuse to put a carbon tax of their own onto their citizens. It was one of the first orders
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of business for the Doug Ford government in Ontario to eliminate the Kathleen Wynne cap
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and trade that so many Ontarians thought was causing harm to the economy, to business and
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not really doing a hoot for the environment. That's what's at stake here. Now the question
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is not whether climate change is real or whether global warming is real. No, the question that's
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going to be adjudicated here is whether the federal government has the constitutional jurisdiction
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to impose such a tax on provinces basically as a penalty. But what's interesting is that
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a lot of the interveners such as the Suzuki Foundation, for example, are putting forward
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a vision on this that is actually about whether a carbon tax is a good idea environmentally.
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And this is one thing that's very important to note because today there's actually a protest
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scheduled where a bunch of environmental demonstrators are going to be protesting against the provincial
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government's challenging of the carbon tax. And they're going to be saying that a carbon
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tax is necessary. The British Columbia government has intervened in this case. And the BC government's
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saying in its factum that a carbon tax is necessary because climate change is real and because
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climate change doesn't respect provincial borders or boundaries. But none of these arguments
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really get to the core of the constitutionality, which is what the Ontario Court of Appeal and
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Judge McPherson specifically will be determining. And such a high profile case this is that for
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the first time in about 12 years cameras will be allowed in the courtroom. The whole thing will
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be live streamed. But ultimately the question is solely whether Justin Trudeau and his government
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have overstepped their bounds and imposed something on provinces that is not constitutionally
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within their mandate. We'll be in the courtroom for the next four days. It's going to be probably a
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real barn burner at some points and perhaps a little drier at others. But that's why we're here
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because this is one of the most critical fights that is taking place not just in provincial elections
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and in provinces across the country, but at the federal level as well. For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.