The Legislative Assembly of the Canadian province of Alberta on Tuesday passed a bill instituting a $20 (CAN) per metric ton tax on carbon dioxide emission. The tax, which passed in a 42-29 vote and will come into effect Jan. 1, 2017, will jump to $30 per metric ton in 2018.
The province’s party in power, the New Democratic Party, has celebrated the bill, though it failed to get even a single vote from any member of the legislature’s opposition parties. Even those parties supporting a carbon levy voted against the measure. “It is with a heavy heart that I must say I do not support this bill,” interim Liberal leader David Swann said, according to the Edmonton Journal. “There are too many weak points in the way this bill is written to guarantee that it will fulfil the purpose for which it is intended.”
