Alberta’s premier doesn’t think Clark has the authority to promise a coal tax

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FORT MCMURRAY, ALTA. (NEWS 1130) – BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark’s plan for a hefty carbon tax on thermal coal has raised the ire of Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

Notley says the idea is bad news for Alberta and she doesn’t think Clark even has the authority to pull it off, if she’s re-elected on May 9th.

The Alberta leader says such a levy would hurt her province and she questions if Clark can legally do anything at all. “People who support that idea, or support people proposing that idea, ought to think about where their loyalties lie because, quite frankly, it’s not good for Alberta. But I also don’t know the particular idea will get very far because I’m not convinced that the authority actually exists with the provincial government.”

Clark is locked in a tightly contested provincial election campaign and has proposed the $70 per tonne tax on coal shipped through BC as a way to get back at the United States for softwood lumber duties recently announced by the Trump administration.

Ninety-four per cent of the coal bound for Asia comes from the US, but Alberta also ships coal through BC and would be affected by any tax that may be brought in.

Notley says premiers need to work with the federal government to come up with a response to the softwood dispute.

Clark has said if Prime Minister Trudeau doesn’t act, that carbon tax will be imposed to ensure all exports headed to China are uncompetitive even if they’re coming from this country. “But they’re going to have to pay a duty to do it. They can also ship through the United States, I suppose if that’s what they choose to do, so I would say there’s a lot of good reasons to do it and whether or not it comes from Canada or the US, the levy would apply equally.”

Coal moves through BC ports to be shipped to China, and Clark says it’s among the dirtiest and most carbon-intense methods to generate power and heat.

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