Justin Trudeau promises carbon rebates for Saskatchewan residents — even as it refuses to collect the levy

The rebates are paid directly to households every three months, in provinces where the federal carbon levy on consumer fuel applies. For the coming fiscal year, a family of four in Saskatchewan is slated to get $1,504 in rebates. 

“We’re going to continue to deliver the Canada Carbon Rebate to families right across Saskatchewan, despite the fact that Premier Moe is not sending that money to Ottawa right now,” Trudeau told reporters Tuesday in Saskatoon. 

“The Canada Revenue Agency has ways of ensuring that money that is owed to them is eventually collected, and we have faith in the rigorous, quasi-judicial proceedings that the Canada Revenue Agency uses.” 

Moe’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Star on Tuesday. 

A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan government recently confirmed to the Star that the government decided not to submit the carbon levy proceeds that would have been collected in January, and that the Canada Revenue Agency — the federal branch responsible for collecting the funds — had not contacted the province about the matter. 

The spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Star on Tuesday about whether that is still the case. 

According to Marianne Dandurand, communications director for National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, the federal government cannot legally comment on whether Saskatchewan owes carbon price proceeds. But the government pledged in its recent budget to change the law so that federal officials could publicly disclose when a province is “not in compliance” with the federal carbon price law.  

Saskatchewan first declared last fall it would ignore the federal government’s carbon price law by refusing to collect the levy on natural gas home heating. The province argued — along with federal Conservatives, New Democrats, and other provincial carbon price opponents — that the Trudeau government decision to exempt heating oil from the levy was unfair for people who rely on natural gas.

Noting how the exemption affected a higher proportion of people in regions like Atlantic Canada, where heating oil is heavily used, Moe declared his province would stop collecting the federal levy on natural gas heating through its provincial Crown utility. In December, the Moe government passed a law that it said would give the province “sole authority” to make decisions about collecting and submitting the federal carbon price. 

But the federal government maintained Saskatchewan’s refusal to submit the proceeds from the carbon levy would violate the law that created the national minimum carbon price in 2018 — a law that the Supreme Court of Canada upheld as constitutional against provincial challenges in 2021. 

The spat escalated further in March after Wilkinson warned the province’s failure to submit carbon price proceeds would “hurt people in Saskatchewan” since they would no longer get the rebate. Moe posted a statement on social media that threatened to stop collecting the carbon levy altogether — rather than just on home heating — if Ottawa cancelled the rebates. 

With files from Mark Ramzy