Alberta says goodbye to the carbon tax

Alberta’s carbon tax is dead. Legislation will pass later today to make the act official, but since midnight Thursday morning Albertans no longer have to pay a carbon tax.

The move is one of the first campaign promises to be deliver on by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Before being elected Premier, Kenney promised that he would axe the tax as soon as he came into office.

“We have barely been in office for a month and we are already, today,  delivering to Albertans the biggest tax break in our province’s  history,” Kenney told the legislature.

However, the success might be short lived as the federal government is moving in on imposing the federal version of the carbon tax “as soon as possible” according to Minister of the Environment Catherine McKenna.

The carbon tax was a remainder from the former NDP government under Rachel Notley. In 2017, Notley imposed a $30 a tonne carbon tax on Albertans.

Although Ottawa hopes to impose the federal version of the tax which begins at $20 a tonne but will increase to $50 a tonne by 2022, Alberta has promised to fight the decision in court.

Alberta will be joining several other provinces in the carbon tax constitutional challenge, including Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

“They don’t have a plan to tackle climate change and they don’t have a plan to grow the economy,” said McKenna.