Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is playing politics with people’s future, hours after announcing plans to legally challenge the price of carbon once again.

In an interview with Canada’s National ObserverGuilbeault said Canadians should not accept Smith’s policies — upending billions of dollars of investment in clean energy while supporting the fossil fuel industry against climate policies — as the “new normal.”

“It’s more posturing…for personal benefit,” he said. “It’s so transparent. Everything she has done over the past few weeks is part of her leadership review which begins this weekend.

Alberta’s legal challenge comes days before Smith faces a leadership vote Saturday from members of his United Conservative Party.

Former premier Jason Kenney resigned in 2022 after a similar leadership review. recent survey suggests that Smith is more popular among the UCP base than Kenney was. But like The Globe and Mail note Last month, Kenney wasn’t the only Alberta premier to be voted out by his own party. Others include Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford, which may explain Smith’s efforts in recent weeks to attract his supporters, including amusing conspiracy theories about chemtrails.

Although Smith’s critics say fighting with Ottawa wastes time, resources and ignores opportunities to align the province on climate goals, as Radio-Canada reported earlier this year, vote suggests fighting Ottawa is popular with Albertans.

On Tuesday, Smith told reporters the carbon price was “cruel and punitive” and “grossly unfair.” To justify launching the latest legal challenge, she said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was trying to “divide our country” into cut domestic fuel from the federal carbon price to reducing heating costs, primarily for Atlantic Canadians.

“We will not stand idly by and let this unfair exclusion disadvantage Albertans for another winter,” she said. “We ask the court to declare the exemption both unconstitutional and illegal.”

Alberta’s accusation that decision to suspend carbon pricing on home heating oil is unconstitutional rests on how the Supreme Court of Canada governed on the constitutionality of the law on pricing pollution caused by greenhouse gases. In 2021, the Court recognized that the federal government has the right to fight climate change by putting a price on carbon, because climate change causes harm beyond provincial borders and is a matter of “national concern” under the “peace, order and good government” clause of the law. Constitution.

But according to Alberta, the decision was limited to the federal government’s ability to create minimum national standards for carbon pricing, and by suspending the carbon price on home heating oil, the federal government violated those minimum standards. Alberta maintains that Ottawa applies the rules unevenly to favor one region and prioritize fuel over others.

“This exemption is not only unfair to the vast majority of Canadians, but it is also illegal since the federal government does not have the authority to grant special exemptions for certain parts of the country under the law. Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act” said Mickey Amery, Minister of Justice of Alberta, in a press release.

Smith clarified that she is not seeking an exemption from the carbon price on natural gas, which is used by most Albertans to heat their homes, nor for the carbon price to be reapplied to home heating oil, which is used much more. in Atlantic Canada. Its focus is the price of carbon itself.

“We hope this will force Ottawa to recognize the burden the carbon tax places on Canadians and eliminate the tax altogether,” she said, adding that she was already in talks with the premier of Saskatchewan , Scott Moe, freshly re-elected, to join the challenge.

Regardless of what happens with Alberta’s latest legal challenge, Smith said she intends to fight Trudeau to the end. She described regulations such as the proposed oil and gas emissions cap and clean electricity standards as undermining Alberta’s oil and gas sector and said she did not believe Trudeau had the mandate to tackle a problem of such importance.

“He would have to seek a mandate to be able to do that, and that’s why we would be very happy to see an election called as soon as possible,” Smith said, adding that even if Trudeau won again, she would not abandon the fight. .

“If he gets a warrant, then I guess we will then take the matter to court,” she said. “But if he doesn’t get a mandate, we can hopefully have a constructive conversation with the next government.”

On Tuesday, the Conservative Party of Canada issued a press release supporting Alberta’s cause, calling carbon pricing a “costly scam” and citing reports from the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) that appear to confirm the Conservative position .

However, as previously reported by Canada’s National ObserverPBO’s carbon price analysis has been heavily criticized for not taking into account the impacts of climate change in its study of whether people are better off or worse off with this measure. Essentially, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is finding that more people are receiving more money in carbon price rebates than they are paying, but that the carbon price could also drain the economy as a whole, which would result in people having less money. It did not take into account the impact of climate change on the economy, although experts agree climate change poses a significant threat.

These double conclusions gave political leaders the opportunity to select the facts according to their speech. Indeed, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux, spoke to the media after the release of his report last year to say that he “concerned» on the political turn at stake.

Experts interviewed by Canada’s National Observer say carbon pricing advocates are right that more people get more money than they pay, making it a useful tool for tackling climate change and affordability .

But carbon price advocates seem to be gradually moving away. The federal NDP distanced of carbon pricing in September, and shortly thereafter, the British Columbia NDP, then in the midst of a close election, declared that it abandon the price of carbon if Ottawa allowed it.

Guilbeault said the Liberals would continue to defend it, emphasizing that the federal government would raise the price of carbon as planned in April, even though it was still under intense pressure to abandon it. He also highlighted the party’s efforts to better promote the Canadian carbon rebate.

“We have worked and will continue to work very hard to support and defend carbon pricing,” he said. “Frankly, and I would say unfortunately, we are one of the only governments in the country doing this.”