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Carbon tax debates about to heat up with two major elections in 2019

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – With two major elections coming up this year you will hear a lot about a carbon tax.

Some groups say there are more effective ways to deal with climate change.

“We have to start looking at other ways to combat climate change that isn’t going to harm our world-class industries like the oil and gas industries in Canada,” said President Mark Scholz with the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors.

He argues there is a strong system in place in Canada to fight climate change.

“We have to get behind our world-class regulatory systems.”

He also takes issue with some rhetoric being thrown around.

“I think it was very irresponsible of the federal government to indicate that our world-class regulatory systems somehow didn’t have the confidence of Canadians and we would argue they did.”

Instead, Scholz would like to see something like a return to a levy on some of the heavier emitters like what we saw from 2007 until the carbon tax replaced the system.

The money raised would then go to an innovation fund.

“That tech fund drove some of the innovation of getting carbon out of the barrel to the tune of 30 to 40 per cent in quite frankly a very short period.”

He argues that would mean our trade exposed industries would be better protected.

Now if Jason Kenney and the UCP win the provincial election, he has promised to fight the federal government on the carbon tax issue, but we will also have to wait and see what happens in the federal election expected in the fall.

He would be joined by other premiers around the country, including Doug Ford in Ontario and Scott Moe in Saskatchewan.

The court battle between those provinces and the federal government is ongoing.

Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party have also been staunchly against the national carbon tax, but if Justin Trudeau’s Liberals win a majority or even a minority government, the policy is unlikely to change.