Premier opens door to carbon tax
Returns from climate change summit with plans to reduce emissions
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, April 20, 2015
QUEBEC CITY
Premier Bob McLeod opened the door to a carbon tax in the future after returning from the Quebec Summit on Climate Change last week.
"Not at this time, but going forward we're prepared to look at it," said McLeod in an interview with News/North.
"We will want to establish linkages with the emerging carbon pricing systems to ensure trade barriers with other provinces, territories and national economies don't emerge with unintended impacts on development in the Northwest Territories," he said.
He said economic modelling in 2011 indicated carbon pricing would be difficult to implement in such a small economy and provide limited benefits.
Carbon pricing was one of many discussions at the summit, which McLeod, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, three more GNWT executives and four staff attended.
"The role that I played and each premier from every province and territory who was there was talk about what we are doing with regards to climate change and whether we could all agree to work together and to come up with our targets by September so we could report at the Paris summit," said McLeod.
When asked how he reconciles the goal of reducing carbon emissions and the cost-of-living while flying multiple people across the country to this summit, which of costs taxpayer money and increases emissions, McLeod answered that looking at the trip this was is a simplistic approach.
"We're very small emitters in the larger scheme," said McLeod, who added his job was convincing southern provinces that the North feels the greatest effects of climate change.
"Definitely it's worth travelling to. We're not going there just to waste our time and spend money."
Premiers across the country attended the summit and came up with a declaration they will bring to a Paris summit on climate change later this year.
A stated goal in the declaration is to "transition to a resilient and lower-carbon economy by 2050."
"Ultimately, everybody in the world is going to agree to take actions to reduce climate change," said McLeod.
