The Supreme Court of Canada has delivered its decision on the federal government's application to challenge Ontario's carbon tax on carbon emissions in a landmark Supreme Court case. The federal government argues that it has the authority to act on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. Ontario argues that the government does not have the authority under the Constitution to do so.
00:00:00.000At long last, the four-day carbon tax court reference at Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto has come to an end.
00:00:17.000No decision has been rendered, of course, a lot of information for the five justices on Ontario's Court of Appeal to go through.
00:00:23.000But ultimately, Ontarians, and indeed all Canadians, really have been able to see what the key arguments are here.
00:00:29.000The federal government has put forward the position that it doesn't just have the jurisdiction but ultimately the obligation to act on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change.
00:00:39.000The provincial government saying we don't disagree about the need to advance an aggressive policy perhaps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reduce climate change.
00:00:49.000However, it is the responsibility of the provinces and not the federal government to make that distinction.
00:00:55.000There were a lot of arguments put forward by both sides that really go down to some very key Supreme Court cases that talk about the enumeration of powers.
00:01:04.000And I'm not going to go through all of these but I will say that it was interesting that a new dimension was added to the discussion on the fourth and final day of the hearing.
00:01:12.000And that was whether this can adequately be characterized as legislation acceptable under the emergency powers that the Constitution authorizes the federal government to do, irrespective of provincial powers.
00:01:24.000And I mentioned this briefly earlier in the week, the federal government did not make emergency powers a key part of its submission.
00:01:31.000It was actually the David Suzuki Foundation and the Intergenerational Climate Coalition that did prompting almost a footnote from the federal government of, well, if the court agrees with that, then yes, we'll pursue that.
00:01:42.000And what I found so interesting was that despite how minimal the role of that discussion was earlier in the week, it actually occupied a pretty significant chunk of Ontario's closing arguments or replies today.
00:01:55.000So the question becomes, is that a potential source of frustration or hesitation from Ontario that maybe that was a compelling argument put forward by the interveners?
00:02:06.000We don't know and won't know, but it was an observation that it seemed to get more airtime from the Ontario government than from the Canadian government.
00:02:15.000Among the other key questions are whether this would open the floodgates to federal government overreach into provincial territories.
00:02:23.000The federal government says no, it can be very limiting in its own legislation moving forward.
00:02:28.000The provincial government, not just in Ontario, but also in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, says this could in fact cause monumental challenges for other provinces moving forward if they do not have the right to keep these areas in their jurisdiction.
00:02:42.000Among the many arguments that were brought up, we'll obviously follow this as it advances.
00:02:46.000And I note that the Manitoba government earlier this month said it would be launching its own legal challenge with the election of Jason Kenney and the UCP in Alberta.
00:02:55.000They may be launching their own challenge as well.
00:02:57.000So we are heading towards inevitably a Supreme Court case at some point.
00:03:02.000We're not there yet, but we'll of course follow this as things progress.