Although the Saskatchewan government is not in favour of the federal government’s carbon pricing, Premier Scott Moe says now that the Supreme Court has ruled that it is constitutional, the province will join in, although he is concerned that this ruling lays precedence for other areas like health care.

The province will submit a proposal for Saskatchewan’s own carbon pricing for fuel, similar to what was approved in New Brunswick. The Premier says it would provide an immediate rebate at the pump rather than at tax time.

Moe says Saskatchewan will move forwards with a made-in-Saskatchewan carbon price plan which includes proposing that SaskPower and SaskEnergy be under provincial emissions regulations rather than under federal rules. He explains that then there would be more flexibility and control around how carbon tax revenues are distributed. A request was made to the federal government in February for this to occur retroactively to January 1st, 2019, but Moe says they haven’t had a response back yet.

Here are the rest of the proposals:

-Saskatchewan will develop a greenhouse gas offset pgm as an option for regulated industries to meet their annual emission reduction targets. Companies could buy credits from farmers, ranchers, forestry and other businesses which may have the opportunity to sequester carbon.

– The province will be asking the federal government to support the development of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. Saskatchewan and Ontario are teaming up with New Brunswick and soon also Alberta, to advance SMR technology. Saskatchewan is asking the federal government to participate in this. Moe says it could be deployed in industries to power mines, factories, and could be used for power in remote communities that rely on diesel.

– The province is asking the federal government to provide Saskatchewan with its fair share of the Low Carbon Economy Fund. To this point it hasn’t been provided because it’s part of the Pan-Canadian Framework Agreement which the province didn’t sign on to. The SaskParty government’s estimate is the province should receive $126-million from the fund. The province has already submitted a number of projects which would reduce emissions by nearly 90-million tonnes over their lifespan.