Northwest Territories Premier wants to abolish one of the environmental taxes

The new non-partisan premier of the Northwest Territories, R.J. Simpson, said that in an ideal world, Ottawa would have to allow the territories to opt out of the carbon tax.

"The costs are already high — higher costs are not the solution up here."

The federal government's carbon pricing system requires provinces to implement their own systems that meet federal standards or use the existing federal system. The Northwest Territories have their own carbon pricing system. The territory had previously revised it to eliminate heating fuel rebates in April.

However, the territorial government was dissolved in mid-October because of the election. That means the territorial government was not in session when the federal government announced at the end of the month that it would stop using fuel oil to heat homes.

Speaking immediately after his election to office, Simpson said the carbon tax simply "doesn't work" for the region because the cost of living — namely heating, electricity — is too high here:

"[If] high costs is what is going to get people to use green energy and green technology, we would have been doing that years ago."

Lack of infrastructure, connections to the southern power grid and other factors have hindered the adoption of green energy, according to the premier. For example, heat pumps, which are being relied on in Ontario, operate intermittently in the winter temperatures of the Northwest Territories. Simpson has indicated that he's going to ask the federal government for help in dealing with these issues. So the premier is gently signaling that if Ottawa wants to see Canada's territories become greener, it will have to invest in infrastructure first.

What about Ottawa?

It's no secret that the environmental agenda is one of the pillars of the ruling Liberal Party's policies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is adamant about keeping the carbon tax in place. At the same time, the heads of individual provinces and territories insist that the federal government make an exception for all fuels used for home heating.

The opposition Conservative Party of Canada, represented by its leader Pierre Poilievre, has consistently resisted the Liberals' environmental tax policies. The party has recently resorted to procedural delaying tactics to try to weaken tax legislation in this area again. Their goal is to introduce carbon tax credits for some farmers and Indigenous peoples.