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


Transcript

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