As Quebec turns into the final province in Canada that hasn’t deserted carbon pricing, the provincial authorities might begin feeling strain to align itself with the remainder of the nation.
There has lengthy been a broad consensus in Quebec on the necessity to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions, and the province’s cap-and-trade system, launched in 2013, has by no means been particularly controversial.
However some say Prime Minister Mark Carney’s choice to scrap the federal shopper carbon worth might change that — particularly as soon as Quebecers discover the distinction on the pump.
As of Tuesday, the federal carbon worth, which utilized in most provinces and territories, has formally been scrapped. British Columbia, which was the primary province to impose its personal carbon worth in 2008, has additionally repealed its tax.
Requested Monday about whether or not he ought to act in sort, Premier François Legault stated he would wait to see the result of the April 28 federal election. “We positively must be aggressive,” he informed reporters throughout a visit to Germany.
He added that Quebec’s cap-and-trade system “finally prices much less for the buyer” than the federal carbon worth did.
With the federal measure now gone, nevertheless, critics of carbon pricing say it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Quebecers begin to really feel ache on the pump. “Once we examine costs between Gatineau or Montreal and Ottawa … that distinction goes to be putting,” stated Carol Montreuil, a vice-president with the Canadian Fuels Affiliation.
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“I feel lots of people are going to be questioning whether or not perhaps it’s time to place a pause on that (cap-and-trade) system.”
He stated many Quebecers can be “trying on the authorities for a break,” particularly with the added burden of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It’s arduous to foretell precisely how Quebec gasoline costs will examine to the remainder of the nation within the absence of the carbon worth. In 2024, the federal levy accounted for 17.6 cents per litre of gasoline. Quebec’s cap-and-trade system, which is linked to California’s, presently prices round 10 cents per litre.
However Pierre-Olivier Pineau, chair of vitality sector administration at HEC Montréal, the enterprise faculty of Université de Montréal, cautioned that individuals outdoors Quebec received’t essentially see gasoline costs drop by a full 18 cents on Tuesday. “At the least for a transitional interval, the distributors and the service stations will preserve a bigger revenue margin,” he stated.
On March 31, the web site GasBuddy.com confirmed Quebec as having a mean gasoline worth of round $1.53 per litre — among the many lowest within the nation. The typical worth in B.C. was a full 25 cents larger, round $1.78 per litre.
One factor is evident, stated Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Quebec can be going from one of many locations the place gasoline is comparatively reasonably priced proper now to one of many locations the place the worth is the best within the nation,” he stated.
Gagnon is hoping to grab this “window of alternative” to strain the Quebec authorities to abolish its carbon worth.
However Normand Mousseau, a physics professor on the Université de Montréal and scientific director of an vitality institute on the college, identified that no main political celebration in Quebec has come out towards the cap-and-trade system. He stated it’s unlikely Quebecers pays a lot consideration to gasoline costs in neighbouring provinces.
“There’s a consensus in Quebec that local weather points are actual and we should do one thing,” he stated. “So I discover it arduous to see it changing into a political challenge proper now.”
Pineau stated if the federal government does begin to really feel strain on carbon pricing, it might all the time select to redirect a few of the income from the carbon market to taxpayers. At present, the cash goes to Quebec’s electrification and local weather change fund, to be spent on applications that cut back emissions.
That’s one other approach Quebec’s carbon worth is distinct from the federal system, which returned many of the income on to households.
However Pineau added that one of many causes Quebec’s cap-and-trade system hasn’t change into a political lightning rod could be that it’s extra sophisticated than a carbon levy, and the price is much less apparent.
“When you don’t perceive one thing,” he stated, “it’s troublesome to be towards it.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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