N.W.T. premier says he wants complete carbon tax exemption for territory

Canada's newest premier says that in an ideal world, Ottawa would provide his territory with a blanket exemption from the carbon tax.

"I mean, ideally, a complete exemption for the territory is what we would hope for," said R.J. Simpson, chosen this week as premier of the Northwest Territories, in an interview Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live.

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

The carbon pricing framework set up by the federal government requires provinces to implement their own systems that are in line with federal standards, or use the federal system that's in place. The N.W.T. has its own carbon pricing system, rather than relying on the federal backstop as some other provinces do.

That means if the territory wants to change its system to reflect shifts in the federal scheme — such as the exemption on home heating oil — it may have to do so through its own processes. The territory had previously revised its system to end rebates for heating fuels in April.

But the territory's legislature was dissolved in mid-October for an election campaign that concluded around a month later, meaning it was not sitting at the time the federal government announced its exemption for oil used in home heating in late October.

Speaking just after his selection as premier, Simpson said the carbon tax simply "doesn't work" for the N.W.T.

"Here in the Northwest Territories, the cost of living is high. The cost of fuel, home heating, power — they've always been high. [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," he said Sunday.

But a lack of infrastructure, connection to southern power grids and other factors make it hard to implement those technologies, he said.

"Heat pumps don't work up here in this climate," he said. Some heat pumps, such as conventional air-source heat pumps, tend to struggle in colder temperatures.

"We all agree we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is real, I can tell you we are being impacted here in the North more so than the rest of the country," he said, noting that he had been evacuated from his own home for two months this year.

The Northwest Territories experienced devastating fires over the summer that prompted an evacuation order for Yellowknife and other communities, such as Hay River, where Simpson lives.

Simpson said residents of the territory are experiencing an acute cost of living challenge.

"The prices in the rest of Canada are getting close to what they actually used to be here, so the prices are just getting higher and higher here," he said.