Ontario called ‘alarmist’ about federal powers if carbon pricing law stands
TORONTO — Ontario is being alarmist in fighting Ottawa’s carbon pricing law by suggesting the federal government is grabbing new powers that would allow it to regulate when people drive or where they live, the province’s top court heard on Tuesday.
In her submissions, a federal lawyer said the law aims to prompt people to change their ways to reduce potentially catastrophic global-warming pollution, which respects no provincial boundaries. The provinces, she said, simply can’t head off potentially catastrophic global warming on their own.
“There is a gap in Canada’s ability as a nation to meet the challenge as it now faces,” Sharlene Telles-Langdon told the Ontario Court of Appeal. “The federal power is directed toward a national measure.”
At issue is the constitutional validity of federal legislation that kicked in on April 1. The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which levies a charge on gasoline, other fossil and on industrial polluters, only applies in provinces such as Ontario that have no carbon-pricing regime of their own that meets national standards.