PM hails national climate change deal, but without Saskatchewan, Manitoba
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared victory Friday in his campaign to craft a national “framework” agreement on climate change — even though Saskatchewan and Manitoba refused to sign on to the deal and British Columbia claimed a major carve-out.
Even as Trudeau was asserting the provinces and territories “are all in this together,” it was painfully apparent that major divisions remain.
Carbon pricing, said Trudeau, “will apply across 100 per cent of this country” starting at a minimum $10 per tonne of emissions in 2018 — a shot fired squarely across the bow of the most vocal holdout, Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall.
It’s just one part of a wide suite of climate policies designed to push Canada toward its international 2030 climate pledge to cut emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.