Juno News - January 06, 2024


SaskEnergy minister ‘confident’ in carbon tax resistance


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

177.2398

Word count

1,884

Sentence count

18


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Saskatchewan has told the federal government that it will no longer collect their carbon tax on home heating oil and propane. What does this mean for Nova Scotians and Newfoundlanders? And what does it mean for the rest of the country?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Yesterday on the show we had a rather interesting discussion I thought with our good friend Chris
00:00:13.600 Sims about the move that Saskatchewan has made. This is like the big big move the power move the
00:00:20.040 boss move from the Scott Moe government to tell the feds we are not going to collect your carbon
00:00:26.960 tax anymore on home heating oil sorry on on home heating and on fuel because the government gave
00:00:34.080 this very narrow exemption to Atlantic Canadians effectively by saying you don't need to pay a
00:00:40.240 carbon tax on home heating oil. So all of a sudden Saskatchewan was like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
00:00:44.620 you said this was a an issue of national concern you said it was crucial for the climate and now
00:00:50.280 you are saying that on our natural gas and electrical heating and our fuel that we still have to pay the
00:00:56.420 carbon tax but all those Newfoundlanders and Nova Scotians with their home heating oil don't. So
00:01:01.700 Saskatchewan just did the one thing it could do which is say all right well the the agency responsible
00:01:07.260 for this Sask Energy is a provincial agency maybe we just stop collecting the carbon tax. That is the
00:01:13.980 move they have put in place starting as of the beginning of the year so that would make make it
00:01:19.420 starting Monday. I wanted to chat about this with the Saskatchewan minister responsible for crown
00:01:24.660 corporations Dustin Duncan. Minister it is wonderful to have you on the show thanks for coming on today.
00:01:29.940 Well thanks for having me and happy new year to you as well.
00:01:33.060 Now correct me if I'm wrong minister but I I mean this isn't a surprise move obviously Premier
00:01:38.100 Scott Mo announced this was coming in the fall and as I understand it you've sent letters I believe
00:01:42.980 plural to the government federally saying this is what's happening here's the day and you've not
00:01:48.340 received a reply am I understanding that correctly?
00:01:50.580 Yeah we haven't received a response yet both Sask Energy and myself as the minister have written
00:01:56.180 to the federal minister of national revenue essentially saying that Sask Energy will be
00:02:01.380 deregistering as the gas distributor in Saskatchewan. I essentially on behalf of the government will be
00:02:07.220 registering as the gas distributor. We haven't received a response from that but that's after
00:02:12.900 a unanimous vote in the house here in Saskatchewan where all parties agreed that we would essentially
00:02:20.980 move that responsibility from Sask Energy move it to the government to me as the minister for both
00:02:27.540 essentially collecting the carbon tax but more specifically for the remittance of the carbon tax.
00:02:32.100 So in the event that we get to a point where we are no longer remitting a carbon tax that'll be a
00:02:37.540 decision that I will make it won't be a decision that will be made at the executive level at the
00:02:43.780 officer level or at the board level at Sask Energy that's really a government decision to make especially
00:02:49.620 because Sask Energy is a government-owned entity so we're the shareholder of the government the duly
00:02:54.260 elected government we're the shareholder we have unanimous support of all members of the legislature to do
00:02:59.940 to do this and so right now we're awaiting a response from the federal government.
00:03:04.260 Is your government confident that this is a legal tactic that you're employing?
00:03:10.980 So we're confident that legally what we did by legislation in Saskatchewan that we can do because
00:03:17.780 Sask Energy is an entity of the provincial government it's an entity of the provincial legislature it's
00:03:22.820 created in statute and so what we're essentially saying what we said in that legislation that did pass in
00:03:28.260 the assembly before our house recessed for the winter for Christmas is that essentially for all of the
00:03:36.340 parts that are related to that one very narrow specific part of the greenhouse pollution pricing act
00:03:46.180 that essentially is the carbon tax that for that section of the federal act that the the government
00:03:52.900 not the crown corporation will be responsible for essentially remitting a carbon tax so because of
00:04:00.180 that Sask Energy has now taken the step to notify the federal government that they wish to deregister
00:04:07.460 as the gas distributor I in turn have registered the government as the gas distributor going forward
00:04:14.660 after January 1st that's what we're still waiting on whether or not the government will accept that so
00:04:19.940 what we did in legislation we can do that we're still waiting whether or not the federal government
00:04:25.300 will acknowledge the change that we've made. I mean if they don't is this an issue where you've
00:04:31.380 kind of checkmated them and they don't have a way to do this or are there concerns that you're having
00:04:36.500 to preempt of how they might respond with this I know CBC for example ran a story that there are
00:04:41.700 some concerns about whether the government will claw back carbon tax rebates that it's the Canada
00:04:46.660 revenue agency that is responsible for sending out. Well first of all it's not the provincial
00:04:52.820 government in Saskatchewan or in any other province or Sask Energy or Sask Power that is responsible for
00:04:58.660 determining the rebates that's fully at the discretion of the federal government they can choose how to
00:05:03.860 distribute the rebates and keep in mind in Atlantic Canada where they've been exempt from the carbon tax on
00:05:09.220 home heating fuel residents still there are getting a rebate and in fact the federal government
00:05:14.100 announced at the same time that they were topping up the rebate for rural residents which would be
00:05:19.060 you know a large number of residents not only in Atlantic Canada but the rest of the country so
00:05:23.940 they made the decision to not only keep in place the rebate for those residents but also top up those
00:05:30.820 the rebates for rural residents regardless of the fact that they have not implemented the carbon tax on
00:05:37.940 home heating fuel for some residents in the country so the the two I don't think are linked the federal
00:05:44.420 government can continue to supply a rebate to people across the country regardless of what we do here in
00:05:50.900 Saskatchewan in terms of collection or eventually remitting or not remitting a carbon tax. I just wanted
00:05:56.660 to I mean you mentioned in this interview and I've seen it elsewhere that you're taking the responsibility
00:06:01.060 for this you're not making Sask Energy do anything and I I'm I think that's a very interesting move
00:06:06.500 here because you're you're prepared to own this whatever happens are you not? Yeah absolutely I'm
00:06:11.780 I'm the minister responsible for Crown Investments Corporation which includes Sask Energy and Sask Power
00:06:17.540 what we have wanted to do and signal to first and foremost the people of Saskatchewan is that we are
00:06:23.300 continuing to fight for fairness when it comes to the carbon tax the prime minister has given a
00:06:27.380 carve out to some Canadians but not to all Canadians the other thing to keep in mind is that Saskatchewan
00:06:33.220 particularly rural Saskatchewan used to rely largely on home heating oil like they do continue to do in
00:06:38.980 Atlantic Canada or large parts of Atlantic Canada and we went through a process in the 1980s of
00:06:44.820 moving to rural rural gasification where Sask Energy moved into rural areas where now the vast majority of
00:06:50.820 residents in Saskatchewan both farm small town and large communities are on the gas system
00:06:57.140 natural gas system that was at a considerable cost in today's dollars that would have been close to
00:07:01.700 half a billion dollars so we already made that move we shouldn't be penalized for having been
00:07:06.580 early adopters to to gas and natural gas here in Saskatchewan so as minister responsible if the
00:07:14.580 decision is made to not remit a carbon tax and again that decision has not been made but if a decision
00:07:19.700 is made to not remit a carbon tax to the federal government that will be the government making that
00:07:23.860 decision that will be me as the minister my cabinet colleagues and so in terms of ministerial
00:07:29.220 responsibility whatever consequences are borne by that action or potentially inaction should be borne
00:07:35.700 by us the elected members and me as minister responsible they shouldn't be borne by the board
00:07:41.460 board of directors who are Saskatchewan residents Saskatchewan citizens they shouldn't be borne by
00:07:46.420 the officers and senior staff frankly any employer at Sask Energy who are just doing their job to provide
00:07:56.500 for heat this winter so people can keep their keep their families warm and so that that's the decision
00:08:06.100 that we've made so if there are consequences to be borne by this they will be by me as the minister
00:08:12.900 i mean i mentioned earlier and you were discussing the federal government's non-response to you and
00:08:16.980 i i guess in a perverse way no news is good news here because if the federal government says nothing
00:08:21.140 and does nothing they're basically endorsing that you have a right uh implicitly to do this and your
00:08:27.380 citizens your residents are still getting that break well i mean that certainly is a view um we we do
00:08:34.100 need though some certainty on this because technically as of today as of january 2nd um we are uh well
00:08:41.700 technically as of january 1st the beginning of this year sask energy is still the registered distributor
00:08:47.460 because they have not been notified and so potentially any actions against sask energy uh is
00:08:53.540 still uh the consequences would be their consequences we want to shift that that was the intent of the
00:08:59.460 bill again if this decision is going to be made and and it hasn't been made but if there was to be a
00:09:05.940 decision made around the remittance of the carbon tax that'll be our decision to make the shareholder
00:09:11.780 the government of saskatchewan on behalf of the people of this province not by anybody at sask
00:09:16.740 energy's head office or around the board table and so um while no news is usually good news we do need
00:09:23.860 that certainty from the federal government whether or not they will accept the changes that we've made
00:09:28.580 and the change to that registration uh so that we can then as a government make uh further decisions
00:09:34.420 as of uh now um sask energy has been collecting the carbon tax uh until the end of december and
00:09:40.740 depending on people's billing cycles you know they'll see um the carbon tax come off or uh either
00:09:46.180 in january or potentially february depending on their billing cycle but we've made the decision that any
00:09:51.140 uh carbon tax on consumption after december 31st would no longer be billed to the uh the rate payers
00:09:59.380 at sask energy um so you know we're technically still in compliance uh we'll make a payment that
00:10:05.940 those dollars have been collected on the december bills we'll make a payment uh here in january we'll
00:10:11.540 then have a decision to make in basically february depending on what uh what the answer comes back from
00:10:18.100 the federal minister of national revenue minister dustin duncan thank you very much for your time
00:10:23.540 sir thanks for having me thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by
00:10:28.900 donating to true north at www.tnc.news