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Climate change
Canada's stated priorities with respect to climate change start with the Paris Agreement. Provincial and territorial governments have adopted a patchwork regulatory approach to address the effects of climate change. Alberta was Canada's first province to regulate greenhouse gas with its Specified Gas Emitters Regulation. The province has also imposed a carbon levy on transportation and heating fuels; these rates went up on 1 January 2018. The Alberta government also passed the Oil Sands Emissions Limit Act, which places an annual 100 megatonne cap on greenhouse gas emissions specifically from oil sands in Alberta, which is intended to encourage innovation and use of renewable energy technology.
Quebec has implemented a cap-and-trade system that places an overall cap on emissions, which is linked to California's cap-and-trade programme. British Columbia implemented a carbon tax on all fossil fuels consumed in the province that has gradually increased since its inception in 2008.
Recently, a dissenting group of provinces, including Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan have publicly committed to legally challenging the federal carbon fee, and a Supreme Court application on the question of jurisdiction to legislate in the area of climate change will be determined in 2019. This will be a watershed event in the development and direction of climate change policy.
