Is Alberta Inching Toward a Provincial Carbon Tax?

The third significant climate change-newsworthy event of last Thursday (in addition to the Pope's address to Congress and President Xi Jinping's announcement that China would institute a cap-and-trade program) was an address by Alberta Premier Rachel Notley to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, in which she clearly balked at toeing the federal party line on climate change: Thomas Mulcair's call for a national cap-and-trade system. "A national cap-and-trade program may not be our best road forward." Canadians are polite; that was was a rejection. Give 'em hell, Rachel!

I may turn out to be a fool, but I find myself wondering what Alberta, as a province could do, other than a real, British Columbia-style, old fashioned carbon tax. Former Canadian oil executive Dennis McConaghy blogged a month ago that Canadian oil producers should embrace a carbon tax. Privately, Alberta oil executives have long been open to a carbon tax. The late Rick Hyndman, the widely respected senior economist for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, espoused a carbon tax. Rick even quietly worked for Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, designing an ultimately ill-fated convoluted cap-and-trade scheme with a price floor and a price ceiling. Hmm, a cap-and-trade with a price floor and a price ceiling ... is that a carbon tax? Rick only smiled when I asked him that question.

We know that a carbon tax would win political points from economists. We know from the British Columbia experience that a carbon tax would win political points from environmentalists. If the Alberta oil industry is aboard (it is), who's left? It is ironic that people have always thought a carbon tax was a political non-starter. In Alberta, it really seems as if there is no place left to go.

A Loss for All of Us

I try not to get personal or off-theme on this blog, but the passing of a fine person in the Canadian oil industry is reason for us to pause and reflect on a legacy that above all is best described as civility in the maelstrom of controversy. The loss of Rick Hyndman, formerly a senior economist with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, is a loss not only to the varied stakeholders that have engaged with the Canadian oil industry, be they green, brown, or any other colour. Rick was exceptionally knowledgeable about the world oil business, savvy about Canada's role in that global industry, but in all of his dealings polite and respectful, even when, as he recalled six years ago, he was labeled a "climate criminal" by some green groups. The best of the greens, know better, though. In 2005, I headed up a panel on energy policy as part of a CIAJ conference, and invited Rick and now-Ecojustice legal advocate Karen Campbell. Rick accepted that invitation, as he did a more recent one from me, with the response that he "would be honoured to participate," a humbleness that masked his vast storehouse of knowledge and razor-sharp intellect. It was a highlight of my career to remember, as Rick and Karen had their lively and fruitful exchange during the conference, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, the eminent chair of the conference organizing committee, turning to me and whispering excitedly, "these guys are great!"

Without impugning Rick's views, positions, and work, I would like to say that they have for me served as a source of inspiration not only for substantive views, but a commitment to civilized and mutually respectful discourse. There was something utterly Canadian about Rick in that regard.