The Ecofiscal Commission released their final report yesterday, and said that Canada will have to increase carbon prices to $210 per tonne by 2030 is the cheapest and most effective way to reach our climate targets, though certainly not the only way – regulation or subsidies are also possible, but less effective and far more costly. Increasing carbon prices would also mean increased rebates under the current federal backstop (but provinces could certainly recycle revenues in other ways, and some provinces could entirely eliminate their income taxes with said revenue), which would have other knock-on economic effects, but for simplicity and cost, they point toward carbon prices. (It’s worth noting that this analysis didn’t cover the output-based pricing system for large emitters, which helps take things like trade-exposure into account to provide those industries more time to adjust).

Predictably, the Conservatives freaked out and started a new round of social media shitposts about how this was the Liberal plan all along, and they would prevent the cost of everything from going up, etcetera, etcetera, but that’s a dishonest position because other models, like regulation and subsidies, drive up the costs just as much, but they tend to be passed onto consumers in a hidden way, whereas straight-up carbon pricing is transparent and makes it easier for consumers to make better choices (which addresses the demand-side of carbon emissions).

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1199747804727513089

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https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1199755545063952385

To that end, here is the Ecofiscal Commission’s Chris Ragan making the case in his own words, while Heather Scoffield suggests that premiers Kenney and Ford should be thanking Trudeau for imposing the federal carbon backstop because it’s a less economically damaging way of reducing emissions than their plans to date have been.

Good reads:

• Chrystia Freeland made a last-minute trip to Washington for New NAFTA talks as the Americans inch toward ratification.
• Catherine McKenna told the Federation of Canadian Municipalities that she wants to pick up the pace of infrastructure spending, and to have a climate lens on projects.
• Here’s a lengthy look at ways in which Immigration and Refugee Board judges haven’t been applying their own guidelines for dealing with traumatic cases.
• An Alberta provincial court judge is paving the way for challenges to police use of Stingray devices to track cell phones to catch criminals.
• The Senate isn’t going to contest a $2200 court order to pay damages for the fact that water fountains in East Block aren’t bilingual.
• Senator Lynn Beyak’s suspension is over after Parliament was dissolved, and her lawyer says she has fulfilled the conditions that led to the suspension.
• Andrew Scheer is naming is “leadership team” today, and word has it that Leona Alleslev is going to be named deputy leader (which is a curious choice).
• Conservative operatives Kory Teneycke, Jeff Ballingall and John Reynolds have set up a non-profit to call for Scheer’s resignation.
• An Ontario MPP is looking to legislate fairer elections for intra-party elections that are easily rigged (which is part of how leadership elections warped our system).
• Thanks to Jason Kenney disbanding his province’s elections commissioner, all elections violations and penalties are being done in secret.
• Kevin Carmichael looks at how the digital economy is behaving in ways that analogue policy-makers aren’t taking into account.
• Colby Cosh offers some interesting context to the quote about Brian Mulroney and university as the escape from a company town.

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