Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/10/2016 (1448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Who are you and what have you done with Brian Pallister?

Most Manitobans know that Manitoba’s premier is a man with strong opinions about taxes. In short, he thinks taxes here are too high and need to come down. Any suggestion they should be increased is met with sanctimonious contempt.

So, it was with some surprise this week Pallister did not erupt like a small nuclear device when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was following through with a threat to impose a $10 per tonne federal carbon tax, with a plan to bump it to $50 per tonne by 2022. The new levy — expected to be felt at the gas pump and on heating and electricity bills — would be put into effect in 2018 in any province that has not devised its own carbon-pricing strategy.

It was with some surprise, then, that Pallister did not rush to the front steps of the Manitoba legislature, face east and the national capital, and unleash a torrent of angry rhetoric about how this federal levy would devastate a province that, as he loves to say, is the most over-taxed jurisdiction in the country.

At a media briefing held the same day Trudeau announced his plan, Pallister calmly noted he was working on a "made-in-Manitoba" solution to carbon pricing. He also said his government would not proceed with a cap-and-trade regime as promised by the former NDP government. He didn’t offer much in the way of detail about what he would do, but he was conspicuous by his decision not to condemn Trudeau.

The same could not be said for the other provinces.

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia — all with their own policies on carbon pricing — supported the plan. However, environment ministers from Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador walked out of a federal-provincial climate change summit in Montreal, accusing Ottawa of overstepping its jurisidiction. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who has devised her own carbon-pricing strategy, offered qualified support but only if Ottawa approved construction of a proposed oilsands pipeline.

However, none of the premiers came close to matching the response of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who took to Twitter and Facebook to accuse Trudeau of breaching a previous pledge by forcing a carbon tax on the provinces. "The level of disrespect shown by the prime minister and his government today is stunning," Wall said in a statement released Monday.

In many respects, Pallister has more in common with Wall than any other premier. And yet, his response was understated to the point of being downright elegant. So much so that it seemed almost inconsistent with his normal posture towards taxes.

Pallister continues to condemn the former NDP government for increasing the PST to fund infrastructure. He is so opposed to this measure that he has promised to roll the PST back to seven per cent. And it’s not just provincial taxes that aggravate the premier.

Pallister also condemned a City of Winnipeg plan to impose growth fees on new development. At a late September media availability, Pallister hammered Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, suggesting bruskly the city owes it to taxpayers to live within its means.

How could a premier that is so offended by a hike in the PST and introduction of growth fees seem so calm in the face of a carbon tax? It appears Pallister is ready to play the long game on carbon taxes.

Built into the federal proposal is an assurance any revenue from the carbon tax will be remitted to the province in which it was collected. And, remarkably, there do not appear to be any strings attached to that revenue.

How could Pallister make use of that money? If he follows the best practices of B.C., the first province to introduce a carbon tax, the revenue was used to lower other forms of taxation. This ensures citizens are still encouraged to reduce consumption of fossil fuels but provides other tax relief to help ease the pain of higher-priced gasoline and natural gas.

There is a tremendous political upside for Pallister if he just sits back and lets the federal government impose its carbon tax. The premier could then take the money remitted from Ottawa and use it to lower taxes here in Manitoba. Given that Manitoba suffers from a slow-growing economy, stagnant revenues and a growing deficit, this might be the best opportunity Pallister gets in the near future to lower taxes.

That is not the only political benefit of endorsing the federal plan.

Tacit acceptance of Trudeau’s carbon tax provides protection to the PC government on its left flank, where the environmental lobby waits with its fangs freshly sharpened. As well, by resisting the temptation to engage in political histrionics á la Wall, Pallister has earned some gratitude in Ottawa, always a good thing to have when it’s time to negotiate federal support for all manner of provincial initiatives.

The good news in both scenarios is Pallister seems willing to take steps to reduce our carbon footprint and is willing to at least consider the idea of using taxation to help us get there.

The premier will at some point have to square his position on carbon pricing with his otherwise vehement opposition to all other forms of taxation. But for now, he has positioned himself in a rather unique posture.

Pallister is a conservative premier who is neither flustered, nor flabbergasted, by carbon taxes. And that looks good on him.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca