Media Release: Increase in Carbon Pricing Essential to Canada’s Climate Plan

Media Release

Toronto – CELA supports the plan announced today by the government of Canada to continue to increase the federal carbon price beyond 2023. The current price is pegged to increase each year from $20.00 per tonne in 2019 to $50.00 per tonne in 2022. Before today, there was no clarity about whether and how much the carbon price would be increased after 2022.

CELA intervened in the recently argued court challenges of the federal carbon pricing law in the appeal courts in Ontario and Saskatchewan, and in the Supreme Court of Canada, to argue that Canada had constitutional jurisdiction to enact the carbon pricing law. CELA premised its arguments on other national environmental statutes that have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada.

CELA continues to support ambitious and effective action by all levels of government in Canada – municipal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous, and federal – to take meaningful action on the current climate emergency in order to avoid further devastating impacts of climate change, which will disproportionately impact low-income and vulnerable communities. A range of legal and policy tools are required, and the evidence brought to the provincial appeal courts and the Supreme Court of Canada, clearly demonstrated that pricing mechanisms are essential in this global fight.

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Contact:
Theresa McClenaghan, Executive Director
Canadian Environmental Law Association
416-960-2284 ext 7219