Supreme Court Upholds Federal Carbon Pricing System

In an eagerly awaited decision, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act is constitutional. GHG emissions are a worldwide problem that provinces can’t control, even if they act in concert. Moreover, the federal scheme is just a national backstop that leaves provinces free to adopt equally stringent systems of their own, the Court reasoned. The ruling is bad news for the governments of Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan who claimed the backstop was unconstitutional and had planned to establish local schemes that completely disregarded it [Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11 (CanLII), March 25, 2021].