Achi news desk-
Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault says “no decision has been made” on whether the price of carbon will continue to rise after the 2030 goal post, but that the federal government is in consultations to determine future targets by next year.
Asked if that means he’s not ruling out more progress after 2030, Guilbeault said “we haven’t made a decision on that.”
“We’ve started consultations to prepare the next phase of emissions reduction, so after 2030, in Canada, actually, going to 2035,” Guilbeault told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview that aired Sunday.
Guilbeault added that those consultations are “ongoing,” and said the federal government has until next year to set its next round of climate targets “in line with our commitments at the United Nations.”
“But by 2025, no decision has been made yet, except that we will continue to increase the price on pollution,” he said, and pointed to the rebate payments – recently rebranded as Re- Canada’s Carbon catch – also going up.
The current $65-a-tonne carbon price is set to increase to $80 a tonne on April 1, with the impending increase forcing the issue onto the political stage in recent months.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been holding “tax axe” rallies since last summer, and this week he successfully tried a no-confidence motion to try and tackle the Liberals and start an “election carbon tax.”
The carbon price is expected to reach $170 per tonne by 2030, according to federal government targets.
Guilbeault said that if the Conservatives can point to a measure to fight climate change more effectively than the carbon price — a big tent piece of the Liberals’ climate policy — he is eager to hear it.
“If there’s a measure like that lying around under a rock somewhere, someone needs to show it to me, because I haven’t seen it,” he said.
The minister of the environment also reiterated that the federal government will not implement more carve-outs in the program, despite significant pushback from the premiers of seven of the eight states where the policy is in place.
