{"id":64574,"date":"2026-05-28T11:48:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/64574\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T11:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:48:03","slug":"saskatchewan-isnt-bound-by-the-carbon-price-ottawa-set-with-alberta-says-moe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/64574\/","title":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan isn\u2019t bound by the carbon price Ottawa set with Alberta, says Moe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta\u2019s industrial carbon price deal with the federal government will be only a starting point for negotiations to reinstate a carbon price in Saskatchewan, Premier Scott Moe told The Logic.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced an accord to reform the industrial carbon price system in that province. It would see the projected headline price of emissions reach $140 per tonne by 2040, a less onerous benchmark than the previous target of $170 per tonne by 2030.<\/p>\n

Talking Points<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says the industrial carbon price benchmarks Prime Minister Mark Carney set with Alberta will only be a starting point in negotiations to reinstate carbon pricing in his province\u00a0
\nMoe set Saskatchewan\u2019s industrial carbon price to zero last year, and while he said he\u2019s comfortable with the status quo, he\u2019s also open to negotiating a new scheme with Ottawa that would increase oil production in the province <\/p>\n

The same day, Ottawa changed the benchmarks for all carbon price systems in Canada to align with Alberta\u2019s new targets. But in an interview Wednesday with The Logic, Moe made clear he does not see the policy as binding on his province.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MOU that\u2019s signed with Alberta is not Saskatchewan\u2019s MOU,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moe, who set his province\u2019s carbon price to zero<\/a> last year in response to trade aggression from the U.S., said he\u2019s open to talks, but stressed Saskatchewan won\u2019t adopt the same terms as Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can find a true Canadian space that works not only for the federal government, works for the provinces, but most importantly allows our industry to attract investments,\u201d he said, \u201cthen we would take a serious look at moving forward in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

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Alberta has by far the highest emissions of all provinces in Canada thanks to its oil and gas sector, according to the most recent federal statistics. Though Saskatchewan has fewer overall emissions than Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, it typically ranks first or second on a per capita basis.<\/p>\n

Moe said his government\u2019s main objective is keeping Saskatchewan\u2019s industries globally competitive, which has been an ongoing concern<\/a> for the oil and gas industry. The key is to make sure the money can be quickly reinvested to boost production, he said.<\/p>\n

Provinces are allowed to set their own carbon price systems, but if they don\u2019t meet federal standards then Ottawa can impose a backstop. The federal government has not, however, penalized Alberta<\/a> or Saskatchewan for eschewing the federal benchmarks last year by imposing its own system in those provinces.<\/p>\n

Last week, B.C. Premier David Eby called out the prime minister for negotiating exclusively with Alberta to set carbon price benchmarks that will apply across the country. \u201cAt the end of the day, national policies need to be engaged at the table with all the premiers of the provinces and territories, full stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moe didn\u2019t say if he\u2019s received specific assurances from Ottawa that the federal government will let him keep Saskatchewan\u2019s industrial carbon price at zero until after the negotiations on his province\u2019s carbon price are complete. But he would be surprised if the prime minister or his team started enforcing the new benchmarks without notice, he said.<\/p>\n

Moe said he\u2019s already begun discussions with Carney and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, and though he doesn\u2019t have a timeline, he expects the talks will pick up soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These kinds of negotiations have previously exposed rifts<\/a> between Ottawa and Prairie provinces, but Moe said they\u2019ve been more collaborative since Carney\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been open to discussing what\u2019s workable for industry, what\u2019s workable for the people of the province, the provincial government and what could be workable for the federal government. The previous fellow wouldn\u2019t engage,\u201d he said, in reference to former prime minister Justin Trudeau. \u201cI am thankful that I have someone as a prime minister that is finally open to doing just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another mark of change in Ottawa, former Liberal environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who helped implement the federal industrial carbon price program, announced Wednesday he will resign his seat in Parliament, after weeks of criticizing<\/a> the prime minister\u2019s environmental policies and the deal Carney struck with Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julie Dabrusin, the current environment minister, said this week that the federal carbon tax system is working, and that the changes Carney made as part of Ottawa\u2019s pact with Alberta is \u201canother enhancement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s industrial carbon price deal with the federal government will be only a starting point for negotiations to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[164,14969,3517,235,111,290,3941,2393,27535],"class_list":["post-64574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-alberta","tag-carbon-pricing","tag-climate","tag-economy","tag-mark-carney","tag-national","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-saskatchewan","tag-scott-moe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}