The Grande Prairie Petroleum Association is calling the Alberta Appeal Court ruling on the federal carbon tax good news for the industry. In a 4-1 decision Monday, it determined the tax is unconstitutional.
However, former GPPA President Rob Petrone believes the province’s fight against the tax is far from over.
“We believed all along that increasing taxes doesn’t have a huge impact on emission reductions, and, more important, from an industry perspective a lot of time, energy, and cost being invested in new technology in reducing emissions.”
The appeals court decision called the federally imposed carbon tax a “constitutional trojan horse”, adding it created very few theoretical limits on the federal government’s power.
Petrone says, from an industry perspective, lower emissions are something they strive for on a year-over-year basis. He adds what he calls “additional hurdles” being put in place limit the possibility of organic advancement.
“You see time and time again when you can make those impacts at a local level, whether it be individual companies or even at a provincial level, the impacts are a lot more positive if you don’t get wound up in a bunch of policy and procedure, and having to do stuff that doesn’t make a lot of economical where you can focus your investment on making an impact and reducing those emissions.”
Both the Ontario and Saskatchewan court of appeals upheld the federal carbon tax, with both appeals ending in split decisions.