Roundup: Bold new climate action

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As expected, Justin Trudeau and Jonathan Wilkinson (along with Steven Guilbeault for good measure) announced the next round of climate action to get us to the Paris targets, and it includes a rapidly increasing carbon price, which immediately had conservative premiers like Doug Ford and Jason Kenney go into full meltdown about how this was going to crush the economy and make life unaffordable for people – never mind that it’s designed to be revenue neutral. We even had political show hosts try to frame this issue as “can we afford climate action when the economy is terrible?” which is both irresponsible in that it presents a false binary and a wrong expectation that climate action is costly as opposed to able to provide cost savings. As part of this, a more enhanced rebate for those provinces subject to the federal price was announced so that people will be getting larger quarterly front-loaded rebates so that they can offset their increased costs and make smarter choices and keep more of their money.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1337535225245655041

Meanwhile, Heather Scoffield declares the plan to be bold, but worries that there is no alternative to a carbon price if the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down the current one (but that ignores that they could impose it by a different legislative mechanism). Paul Wells is also surprised by the audacity of the plan, given that this government likes to try and take the easy route rather than make the politically hard sell of carbon pricing.

Good reads:

  • The COVID modelling projections remain grim, and will get worse if people gather for Christmas (and judging how Thanksgiving went, that’s feeling likely).
  • The government is creating a support programme for anyone who suffers an adverse reaction to a Health Canada approved COVID vaccine.
  • Patty Hajdu says the federal government can’t stop private corporations – like the NHL – from negotiating directly with vaccine manufacturers for doses.
  • David Lametti is asking the Quebec court for yet another extension on their Truchon decision because they couldn’t get the assisted dying bill passed in time.
  • A CBSA officer is being investigated for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a passport to deport an immigration detainee, renewing calls for independent oversight.
  • The NSIRA says that CSIS’ use of geolocation data without a warrant may be unconstitutional.
  • So far, only three of the seven used CF-18s purchased from Australia are in operation as the whole fleet undergoes radar modernisation.
  • The agreement to use hybrid sittings of the Commons expired because the Liberals are trying to force parties to agree to using a voting app.
  • Jen Gerson suggests that as a culture, we look like we’re going to memory hole 2020 like most people did with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
  • Colby Cosh remarks on the changes to fiscal stabilization, and why Alberta remains cranky about getting more money from Ottawa.
  • My weekend column takes a closer look at Senator Pate’s stunt this week, and the deeper malaise with the “new Senate” that it signals.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Bold new climate action”

  1. Thank you for doing your best here to explain how the carbon levy works and out the lie of the utterances of Ford et al. The Tories constantly call the levy a money grab which it isn’t. When a Party lives in the fifties it has no place in our country now.

  3. Cons know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We know what kind of “green” motivates them, but money means SFA on a dead planet. I think there should be a new dog breed named for the Conservatives: a Penny Pinscher.

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