OTTAWA—Two weeks after Ontario announced a carbon-pricing policy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said governments that adopt such plans are trying to trick Canadians into accepting what’s really only a tax grab.

“Anybody who tells you that a carbon tax is an environmental policy is trying to pull the wool over your eyes,” Harper said Thursday during an event in Winnipeg.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced on April 13 that Ontario would join with other jurisdictions that have carbon-pricing plans in an attempt to curb the greenhouse gas pollution linked to global warming. Ontario intends to take part along with Quebec and California in a cap-and-trade system, a market-driven approach that requires emitters to reduce emissions or buy pollution allowances from other companies.

Meanwhile, British Columbia has a carbon tax on gasoline and other fuels while Alberta has a carbon-pricing scheme for large emitters.

But Harper said such emissions-reduction plans are really only designed to enrich governments. “The reason governments do carbon taxes is not so they can reduce emissions but so they can get more tax revenue in the government’s pocket,” he told the media.

The federal Conservatives will steer clear of carbon taxes, Harper said. But he reiterated Ottawa will shortly bring out long-range goals for tackling global warming. The United Nations has requested that countries submit plans to curb emissions beyond 2020 in advance of a global climate summit in Paris in December.

The Conservatives have said Canadian climate change policy must be in line with that adopted by Canada’s largest trading partner, the United States. Asked Thursday if Ottawa will match the goal recently announced by President Barack Obama, which calls for the U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 per cent below 2005 levels within the next 10 years, Harper said Canada’s targets would be similar but not precisely the same.

“It’s unlikely our targets will be exactly the same as the United States but they will be targets of similar levels of ambition to other major industrialized countries.

“And I would just say, broadly speaking, that there will have to be additional regulatory measures, going forward, to achieve these targets,” the prime minister commented.

The Conservatives have said for years that they would bring in emissions regulations for the oil and gas sector but have yet to do so. With regard to the country’s current efforts, Environment Canada has said Canada will fail by a wide margin to meet its promise to cut emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Harper has been under pressure from opposition parties and some premiers to take the lead in a more aggressive national plan to tackle global warming.

But Harper says carbon taxes are not the answer. “We will look at ways we can encourage reductions while continuing growth.

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“It’s easy to cut emissions by killing jobs and shutting down industries,” he remarked. And in a reference to the NDP and Liberals, he said “the other guys want to shut down the oil and gas industry. That’s not an option for our government.”

The NDP favours a national cap-and-trade system, while the Liberals have said they would work with the provinces to develop a countrywide carbon pricing scheme.

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