Sask. to enshrine its refusal to collect carbon tax on heating into law, premier says

Saskatchewan's premier says his government will not only follow through on its threat to stop collecting carbon tax on home heating bills, but it will pass the policy into law.

“Very soon there is going to be a law in Saskatchewan that will state that we won’t be submitting the carbon tax for how we heat our homes with natural gas to the federal government,” Scott Moe said in an interview on CTV News' Question Period.

Following the Oct. 28 announcement of a pause of carbon pricing for home heating oil users, mostly based in Atlantic Canada, Moe said he would direct Saskatchewan's Crown-owned gas supplier to stop charging the tax in the new year.

“I would say we are doing the exact same thing as the federal government, the federal government made the decision to hold carbon tax payments for heating fuel which impacts largely Atlantic Canada, what we’re saying is we are going to make a similar decision that is going to have an impact on Saskatchewan residents,” Moe said.

Both Moe's majority Saskatchewan Party government and official opposition NDP have agreed that natural gas for home heating should also be exempt from the carbon tax and that not doing so creates division throughout the country.

When asked for her thoughts on Moe’s comments, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said it’s an expectation by everyone in Canada that people should follow the law, saying it would be illegal for Saskatchewan to stop remitting the carbon tax on natural gas for home heating.

“It’s our job to ensure that the law is enforced, it will be,” Freeland said.

Moe said his government will be following "the law," referencing the legislation he said will soon be introduced in Saskatchewan that will make natural gas heating exempt from the federal carbon tax.

He claims that currently 40 per cent of people’s natural gas bill in the province is made up of the federal carbon tax.

Moe said he hopes there is an alternative scenario where Saskatchewan and the federal government can come to an agreement, but added that after one exemption has been made it’s only fair to make the same exemption for the rest of Canada.

“One would hope that this federal government would listen not just to myself but also to a number of other premiers that have been calling for carbon tax fairness and have been calling for an end to this carbon tax crisis that has been created by this federal government,” Moe said.