Article content

OTTAWA — The federal government is keeping an option open to bypass provincial governments and give carbon tax revenue directly to taxpayers in provinces that don’t come up with their own carbon pricing schemes.

Ottawa has promised that revenue from a federal backstop carbon price will go back to the provinces it comes from. But a draft legislative proposal released Monday indicates that the money could go either to the province or to individuals.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Federal carbon tax revenue could bypass provinces and go directly to taxpayers, draft bill indicates Back to video

“I thought that language was interesting, in that it provides the federal government with what appears to be a great deal of flexibility in precisely how they recycle those funds,” said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe. “They’re restricted to put the revenue back in the province, but not necessarily into the hands of the provincial government.”

This isn’t the first time the federal government has suggested it could take it upon itself to distribute carbon tax revenue in provinces that refuse to implement their own prices, like Saskatchewan.