REGINA, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the federal government to fully release heavily censored plans for implementing a carbon tax in Saskatchewan. The CTF obtained the documents through access-to-information legislation, but the content is almost entirely blacked out. (Image: Grey areas represent censored areas of the report)

“A carbon tax will hit Saskatchewanians’ family budgets and impact our jobs, so we have a right to see the federal government’s plans for this policy,” said Todd MacKay, the CTF’s Prairie Director. “If the federal government believes in its carbon tax policy, why is it hiding the details?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has threatened to impose a carbon tax on all provinces that don’t implement one themselves. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is opposing a carbon tax as harmful to the provincial economy and environmentally ineffective. As a result, it appears Saskatchewan will be subject to a federal carbon tax.

The CTF submitted an access-to-information request to the federal Department of Finance requesting all materials regarding the implementation and/or impact of a carbon pricing scheme in Saskatchewan. Federal access-to-information officers identified 69 pages of records relevant to the request, but provided only 33 pages, and all but five were partially or completely censored.

“If the federal government is going to impose a carbon tax on Saskatchewan, people here deserve to see the detailed economic assessments and weigh all of the pros and cons,” said MacKay. “Keeping these documents secret is an assault on the principles accountability and transparency and the CTF is filing an official complaint with the federal Information Commissioner to demand openness.”

The documents from the federal Department of Finance are available here: http://www.taxpayer.com/media/ATIP-Response-SK-carbon-tax-impactR.pdf