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If elected premier, Mandel said he didn’t know if he’d sign Alberta onto that legal challenge.

Alberta’s carbon tax has hit small- and medium-sized businesses at a time when the economy is sluggish, yet costs have risen, Mandel said. In a large province, families need to drive around and heat their homes in winter, and they shouldn’t be punished for living in Alberta, Mandel said.

Mandel said he favours offering incentives for citizens and small businesses to reduce their carbon emissions, rather than penalizing carbon consumption. Encouragement and education would be better ways to reduce emissions, he said.

He said there’s no record of whether the tax has reduced emissions in the province.

NDP candidate Sarah Hoffman called Mandel’s dismissal of the carbon tax’s impact “out of touch,” citing investment in LRT projects such as Edmonton’s Valley Line and Calgary’s Green Line expansion, “solar and wind buys at record rates” as well as being able to give two-thirds of households carbon-tax rebates.

“I think when you sit down and you look at what we’ve been able to do … these are all things that are only possible with a climate leadership plan,” she said Saturday afternoon in Edmonton.

The United Conservative Party has said it would also kill the carbon tax and join Saskatchewan’s legal fight against a federal tax.

Big emitters should pay

On Saturday, Mandel said the province could continue to pay for green incentives like those in the NDP’s Climate Leadership Program by relying solely on the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund. Since 2009, an industrial carbon tax has applied to big emitters that have churned out more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year.