Big industrial plants in provinces covered by the national carbon pricing system paid more than $161 million for their greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, but some critics say the system is designed to ensure the biggest emitters pay the smallest price on pollution.
"Right now, it looks to me like a lot of the big industrial players aren't doing their fair share," said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada.
In total, those affected facilities produced approximately 65 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019. If they had to pay the carbon price — which was $20 a tonne in 2019 — on all their emissions, the cost would be $1.3 billion. Facilities pay the carbon price only on emissions above that limit. If they're below that limit they get federal credits they can sell to other facilities that want to offset their emissions to avoid paying the carbon price. The cost of those credits depends on demand.
Because of COVID-19, deadlines for reporting on the 2019 emissions year were delayed. There is still no data available publicly explaining how many of the surplus credits given to companies below their limit were sold to companies above their limit in lieu of paying the carbon price. Nor is it clear how much those credits cost.
In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and New Brunswick, big emitters accounted for about 25 per cent of total emissions in 2019, but paid less than 10 per cent of the carbon levies collected. Consumers and small businesses paid the rest.
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